President of SFAR (Société Française
d’anesthésie réanimation)
Head of anesthésie réanimation department in
Lapeyronie university hospital in Montpellier
Aspen organised their first symposium at Euroanaesthesia 2018, European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA), the annual congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Aspen symposium was chaired by Pr. Capdevila, who briefly introduced the topics of the symposium: (1) closed-loop anaesthesia; and (2) the placement of regional blocks in awake, sedated or anaesthetised patients. He then introduced the speakers and invited Dr. Liu and Prof. Kessler to the stage to present their talks, respectively.
Even if the two topics seem disconnected, they follow the same patient-centric approach. By choosing or combining different techniques based on patient needs, clinical outcomes can be significantly improved.
Prof. Kessler began by explaining that the topic of how regional anaesthesia should be performed has always been an intense and somewhat emotional discussion. Should it be performed in awake, sedated and/or anaesthetised patients? He asked the audience how many of them routinely perform peripheral nerve blocks in the anaesthetised patient; around 20% said yes.
Closed-loop studies date back over 60 years. One of the early studies published in 1950 included 50 patients who received thiopental or ether using the closed-loop controller. Anaesthesiologists were already aware then of how to quantify the depth of anaesthesia using electroencephalogram (EEG) activity.
