Observer-Based Strategies for Anesthesia Drug Concentration Estimation

Knowledge of the anesthesia drug concentration in a patient during a surgical procedure has potential to improve patient monitoring and control of drug administration. High-fidelity estimates of anesthesia drug concentration would allow anesthesiologists to make relevant low-level dose adjustment as well as high-level clinical decisions. The estimated drug concentrations may also be useful for computerized anesthesia delivery, including, but not limited to, targeting/limiting the drug concentration itself (Van Poucke et al., 2004; Gentilini et al., 2002) as well as monitoring and maintaining hemodynamic stability (Rao et al., 2000).