Constrained closed-loop control of depth of anaesthesia in the operating theatre during surgery

摘要

The constrained version of generalized predictive control (GPC) which employs the quadratic programming (QP) approach is evaluated for on-line administration of an anaesthetic drug in the operating theatre during surgery. In the first instance, a patient simulator was developed using a physiological model of the patient and the necessary control software was validated via a series of extensive simulation experiments. Such a validated system was then transferred into the operating theatre for a series of clinical evaluation trials. The clinical trials, which were performed with little involvement of the design engineer, led to a good regulation of unconsciousness using fixed-parameters as well the adaptive version of the algorithm. Furthermore, the constrained algorithm displayed good robustness properties against disturbances such as high stimulus levels and allowed for safe and economically effective administration of the anaesthetic agent isoflurane.