Control and Automation in Anaesthesia

Some of the latest developments in the automation of therapeutic interventions in anaesthesiology have been covered in this book, with special emphasis on the automated control of anaesthetic drug delivery, neuromuscular blockade, artificial ventilation, and blood pressure. Of particular interest to the reader will be the presentation of different methodological approaches to automated control such as neuronal nets, fuzzy set theory, and fuzzy control and model-based adaptive approaches and their application to different clinical problems. The open-loop and closed-loop approaches to automated control have been discussed as have the requirements necessary for monitoring biological signals and the paramters for the anaesthesia machines with particular focus on recently developed feedback methods for the automated delivery of volatile and intravenous anaesthetic agents based on EEG or evoked potentials. The last chapter discusses the legal requirements and liability aspects for automated systems in medicine, especially in view of recently established regulations and guidelines (e.g. law for medical products). The book represents the proceedings of an international workshop which was held in Bonn, Germany, in May 1994. The contributions come from various specialties, including medicine and anaesthesiology, but also mathematics and operations research, neuroinformatics, engineering, regulatory authorities, and industry.