Modelling Optimization and Control of Biomedical Systems

3 Volatile Anaesthesia

Alexandra Krieger¹, Ioana Naşcu², Nicki Panoskaltsis³, Athanasios Mantalaris⁴, Michael C. Georgiadis⁵, and Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos⁶

¹ Jacobs Consultancy, Kreisfreie Stadt Aachen Area, Germany

² Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA

³ Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK

⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK

⁵ Laboratory of Process Systems Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thesaloniki, Greece

⁶ Texas A&M Energy Institute, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, USA

3.1 Introduction

Mathematical modelling and model‐based control of anaesthesia attracted the attention of researchers during the past decades and are believed to benefit the safety of the patient undergoing surgery and provide anaesthetists with valuable insights. Currently, anaesthetists rely on common practice and their personal experience to determine drug infusion rates and drug inhalation concentrations for the individual patient. The expectations are that detailed modelling and optimized regulation of anaesthesia could pave the way for personalized healthcare, where the individual patient characteristics are taken into account for optimal and flexible drug administration. This will improve the safety of the patient by minimizing side effects, the risk of awareness and overdosing during anaesthesia (Dua et al. 2010). ...