Systems Engineering in the Intensive Care Unit: A Model of Post-Operative Patient Re-Awakening Time

摘要

In a study of the post-operative reovery of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) patients, it was observed that these patients tended to awaken from the effects of anesthesia at varying rates. Because the time at which patients awoke was critical to latter phases of the sutyd, determining the factors which affected the rate of re-awakening were of primary importance. To determine the critical parameters which influenced th re-awakening time of CABG patients, a closed-form model of the patientis' cardioveascular and respiratory systems was constructed to isolate and identify the number of parameters which were thought to affect re-awakening time. As a result of this analysis, af mathematical relatonship was determined which described the re-awakening time of a patient as a function of several physiological parameters. These included patient body temperature, body mass, body size, and the quanity of anesthetic (fetanyl) administered during surgery. The work discussed in this paper was performed at the University of Pennsylvania in conjection with my Ph.D.dissertation requirements.