Computer-assisted anaesthesia for
children and newborns
16 September 2005
London, UK. Dräger Medical has developed a computer-assisted anaesthesia
system with a small system volume that can deliver the exact amount of gas
needed for the patient, making it suitable for use in paediatric
ventilation.
The company presented its customised solution for paediatric and newborn
anaesthesia at this year's Federation of European Associations of Paediatric
Anaesthesia (FEAPA) convention from September 1-3 in Cologne, Germany.
With new software (v3.05), the Zeus anaesthesia system also exerts
expanded, automatic control of all anaesthetic gases that are well-suited
for use in paediatric ventilation. The Zeus rebreathing system has one of
the world's smallest system volumes. As a result, the system is particularly
adapted for ventilating children and newborns. The automatic
computer-assisted anaesthesia control (target controlled anaesthesia, TCA)
has been available for adult anaesthesia for more than a year. Dräger
Medical together with Dr. Josef Holzki and his staff at Cologne's Children's
Hospital readied the TCA paediatric application for series production.
The automatic control delivers the exact quantity of anaesthetic gas
specific to the patient and not only makes fast introduction and recovery of
the anaesthetic possible, but also a stable depth of anaesthesia. This not
only reduces anaesthetic costs, but also prevents children from dehydrating
through the delivery of large quantities of dry gas. In other words, the
total rebreathing (closed system) keeps the moisture physiologically
required in the breathing air and reduces the risk of postoperative
complications.
The general advantages of the TCA, i.e. computer-assisted, automatic
anaesthesia control over previously entered target parameters, are
documented in a new study (1). Most notably, the TCA
control loop designs already engage with the ventilation modes from Zeus and
thus reduce user-initiated "control interventions". This results in more
time to devote to perioperative patient care.
Dr. Josef Holzki, Chief Physician in the Department for Anaesthesia and
Intensive Care Medicine at Children's Hospital, Cologne, President of FEAPA
and director of the clinical test phase of the new software solution, sees a
"quantum leap in medical technology that for the first time makes it
possible to even anaesthetise children weighing less than 3 kilograms like
never before."
"Earlier," says Holzki, "the anaesthetist required a great deal of
experience in paediatric care to calculate the amount of anaesthetic gas for
these small patients. Finally, that has changed. After inputting the
essential target parameters for the child, such as required anaesthesia gas
and oxygen concentration, the Zeus anaesthesia system continually calculates
the required quantity and composition of the anaesthetic gas to be delivered
with the help of the current readings and patient data. Any differences
between 'target' and 'actual' are immediately recognised and automatically
corrected. Carbon dioxide is sufficiently washed in the closed system by
continuous gas flow, thus eliminating the dead space problem with very small
lung capacities."
1. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2005; 94: 306-17.
For more information:
Dräger Medical:
www.draeger-medical.com
6th European Congress of Paediatric Anaesthesia:
www.feapa-cologne2005.org/index.html
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