Feedforward adaptive control of the Bispectral Index of the EEG using the intravenous anaesthetic drug propofol

The problem of controlling the level of unconsciousness measured by the Bispectral Index (BIS) of the EEG of patients under anaesthesia is considered. The manipulated variable is the infusion rate of the hypnotic drug propofol. In order to tackle the high uncertainties present in the system, the predictive adaptive controller MUSMAR is used. The performance of the controller is illustrated by means of simulations with 50 patient individual adjusted models (nonlinear models), which incorporate the effect of the drugs interaction on BIS. This work presents a feasibility study of the control of the BIS exploring the above ideas. These results show that such a control structure can be adequate to control the BIS signal during total intravenous anaesthesia. The controller was able to adequately achieve and maintain the BIS signal with different patient dynamics, reference values and noise. A major challenge for the automation of anaesthesia consists of replicating the experience of the anaesthetist. Clearly, this calls for the use of feedforward from measurable signals correlated with disturbances (e.g. electromyography—EMG, analgesic drug). The results also show that the analgesic and EMG have different influences on the performance and therefore carry different but relevant information.