Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
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Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. · Jun 2001
Case ReportsSleep-wake rhythm during stay in an intensive care unit: a week's long-term recording of skin potentials.
To monitor the sleep-wake cycle of patients during their stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), we tried continuous and long-term recording of skin potential (SP) levels in patients after surgery. A graph of the week-long SP showed the sleep-wake pattern to be evident until the fourth day. ⋯ In another record, the administration of sedative agents to calm the excitement lowered the mean SP level and suppressed SP responses evoked by frequent day and night treatment or nursing care. Continuous monitoring of arousal level by SP will be of help in prevention of ICU syndrome.
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The postoperative sleep disturbance (POSD) is characterized by reduction of sleep after surgical operation. However, its mechanism is not well known. Therefore, we hypothesized that anesthetics could contribute to the POSD, and studied the effects of isoflurane and ketamine on sleep in rabbits. ⋯ In contrast, ketamine anesthesia significantly enhanced NREMS. Both anesthetics did not affect rapid eye movement sleep. These results suggest that isoflurane may contribute to the POSD, but ketamine may decrease the POSD.