• S J Ge, X L Zhuang, Y T Wang, Z D Wang, and H T Li.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Shanghai First People's Hospital, Shanghai 200080, China.
• Br J Anaesth. 2002 Aug 1;89(2):260-4.

BackgroundThe bispectral index (BIS) and the rapidly extracted auditory evoked potentials index (A-line ARX Index or AAI) have been proposed as methods to measure the depth of sedation. A prospective study was designed to assess the performance of both these methods for measuring the depth of sedation induced by propofol or midazolam under epidural block.MethodsThirty-two ASA I and II adult patients undergoing elective gynaecological surgery under low-thoracolumbar epidural block were studied. Eighteen patients received propofol (Group P: 20 mg bolus every 3 min) and 14 received midazolam (Group M: 0.5 mg bolus every 5 min) until an observer's assessment of alertness/sedation (OAA/S) scale score of 1 was achieved. AAI and BIS were monitored for different OAA/S scores.ResultsAAI and BIS decreased and increased following the changes on the patients' OAA/S scores and correlated with sedation significantly. During the onset phase, the coefficients of Spearman's rank correlation for AAI and BIS were respectively 0.958 and 0.898 (P < 0.001) for Group P, and 0.973 and 0.945 (P < 0.001) for Group M. During the recovery phase in Group P, the coefficients were respectively 0.946 and 0.702 (P < 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed that both AAI and BIS were linearly related to the OAA/S scores. The coefficients of Spearman's rank correlation and linear regression for AAI were all greater than those for BIS (P < 0.05).ConclusionsBoth AAI and BIS correlated well with the depth of sedation induced by propofol or midazolam under epidural block. AAI may be more valuable when monitoring depth of sedation.

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