A Pilot Study to Evaluate Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Detect Pain in Infants and Young Children Under General Anesthesia

Pain is a subjective feeling, and an objective measure of pain is needed to obtain improved clinical management and safe outcomes of pain treatment. At present, there is a lack of specific physiological markers of acute pain that can guide analgesic treatment both during and after surgery. The anesthesiologist typically relies on hemodynamic variables to guide administration of opioids for surgical pain, but those parameters are not always either specific or sensitive. On the other hand, uncontrolled pain during surgery can lead to emotional distress and enhancement of the systemic inflammatory response (1).

Current evidence (2-4) shows that the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in pain perception and emotional elaboration. Functional neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) functional near infrared spectroscopy fNIRS) has been recently utilized to investigate cerebral pain-related activity (5, 6).

The investigators propose to detect the optical signal changes over the prefrontal cortex using fNIRS and diffuse optical imaging (DOI) in response to noxious electrical stimulation. This electrical stimulation will be applied over the ulnar nerve at the wrist in children undergoing neurosurgery with SSEP monitoring. This noxious electrical stimulation is the standard stimulus used to establish baseline somatosensory evoked potentials in this patient population for this surgery. DOI is a mathematical methodology used to generate an image from the optical signals analogous to the mathematical methodology of generating a MRI from nuclear magnetic spectroscopy signals.

The investigators will evaluate the magnitude of change of fNIRS-DOI signals after two different intensities of noxious electrical stimulation and following intravenous administration of fentanyl (2 mcg/kg). The investigators will also analyze the temporal correlation of the prefrontal cortex fNIRS-DOI changes with the SSEPs. The results will lead to the identification of an objective specific biomarker for acute pain in children. Our long-term goal is to develop a portable and readily accessible device to improve management of intraoperative nociception and to evaluate acute pain in awake non-verbal children.