Always Assess the Raw Electroencephalogram: Why Automated Burst Suppression Detection May Not Detect All Episodes.

BACKGROUND: Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based monitors of anesthesia are used to assess patients' level of sedation and hypnosis as well as to detect burst suppression during surgery. One of these monitors, the Entropy module, uses an algorithm to calculate the burst suppression ratio (BSR) that reflects the percentage of suppressed EEG. Automated burst suppression detection monitors may not reliably detect this EEG pattern. Hence, we evaluated the detection accuracy of BSR and investigated the EEG features leading to errors in the identification of burst suppression. METHODS: With our study, we were able to compare the performance of the BSR to the visual burst suppression detection in the raw EEG and obtain insights on the architecture of the unrecognized burst suppression phases. RESULTS: We showed that the BSR did not detect burst suppression in 13 of 90 (14%) patients. Furthermore, the time comparison between the visually identified burst suppression duration and elevated BSR values strongly depended on the BSR value being used as a cutoff. A possible factor for unrecognized burst suppression by the BSR may be a significantly higher suppression amplitude ( P = .002). Six of the 13 patients with undetected burst suppression by BSR showed intraoperative state entropy values >80, indicating a risk of awareness while being in burst suppression. CONCLUSIONS: Our results complement previous results regarding the underestimation of burst suppression by other automated detection modules and highlight the importance of not relying solely on the processed index, but to assess the native EEG during anesthesia.

Targeted Interventions to Increase Blood Pressure and Decrease Anaesthetic Concentrations Reduce Intraoperative Burst Suppression: A Randomised, Interventional Clinical Trial.

Background: It has been suggested that intraoperative electroencephalographic (EEG) burst suppression (BSupp) may be associated with post-operative neurocognitive disorders in the elderly, and EEG-guided anaesthesia may help to reduce BSupp. Despite of this suggestion, a standard treatment does not exist, as we have yet to fully understand the phenomenon and its underlying pathomechanism. This study was designed to address two underlying phenomena-cerebral hypoperfusion and individual anaesthetic overdose. Objectives: We aimed to demonstrate that targeted anaesthetic interventions-treating intraoperative hypotension and/or reducing the anaesthetic concentration-reduce BSupp. Methods: We randomly assigned patients to receive EEG-based interventions during anaesthesia or EEG-blinded standard anaesthesia. If BSupp was detected, defined as burst suppression ratio (BSR) > 0, the primary intervention aimed to adjust the mean arterial blood pressure to patient baseline (MAP intervention) followed by reduction of anaesthetic concentration (MAC intervention). Results: EEG-based intervention significantly reduced total cumulative BSR, BSR duration, and maximum BSR. MAP intervention caused a significant MAP increase at the end of a BSR > 0 episode compared to the control group. Coincidentally, the maximum BSR decreased significantly; in 55% of all MAP interventions, the BSR decreased to 0% without any further action. In the remaining events, additional MAC intervention was required. Conclusion: Our results show that targeted interventions (MAC/MAP) reduce total cumulative amount, duration, and maximum BSR > 0 in the elderly undergoing general anaesthesia. Haemodynamic intervention already interrupted or reduced BSupp, strengthening the current reflections that hypotension-induced cerebral hypoperfusion may be seen as potential pathomechanism of intraoperative BSupp. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT03775356 [ClinicalTrials.gov], DRKS00015839 [German Clinical Trials Register (Deutsches Register klinischer Studien, DRKS)].