Consciousness Monitoring

Clinicians use various consciousness assessment strategies to determine optimal levels of anesthesia in surgery and sedation in the intensive care unit. One strategy, bispectral index (BIS), measures a patient’s depth of anesthesia or sedation by collecting raw electroencephalographic (EEG) signals through patient sensors and applying an algorithm to arrive at a value between 0-100 (absent brain activity to an awake state). Optimizing sedation and analgesia may lead to improved patient outcomes, including a reduction in postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction.