MNCLHD

MNCLHD

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Predictions on response to anaesthesia


Research on brain activity recently published in PLOS Computational Biology may help doctors track the likelihood of patients waking up during surgery.

PLOSOne of the researchers, Srivas Chennu, authored an article about the research in The Conversation, which explains the results, which  help us "better understand the transition to unconsciousness during sedation, and how this transition varies from person to person."  They gave a steadily increasing dose of propofol to twenty people who were asked to respond to various stimuli during different levels of sedation as the activity of their brain networks was measured. "We found that it was actually the strength of their brain networks before sedation that predicted why some eventually lost consciousness while others did not."

The original paper: Brain Connectivity Dissociates Responsiveness from Drug Exposure During Propofol-Induced Transitions of Consciousness.  Srivas Chennu, Stuart O’Connor, Ram Adapa, David K. Menon, Tristan A. Bekinschtein.  Published: January 14, 2016 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004669

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