Electroencephalography: Clinical Applications During the Perioperative Period

Yi Sun; Changwei Wei; Victoria Cui; Meihong Xiu; Anshi Wu

doi:10.3389/fmed.2020.00251

Electroencephalography: Clinical Applications During the Perioperative Period

Front Med (Lausanne). 2020 Jun 9:7:251. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2020.00251. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yi Sun¹, Changwei Wei¹, Victoria Cui², Meihong Xiu³, Anshi Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
² Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
³ Peking University HuiLongGuan Clinical Medical School, Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring has become technically feasible in daily clinical anesthesia practice. EEG is a sensitive method for detecting neurophysiological changes in the brain and represents an important frontier in the monitoring and treatment of patients in the perioperative period. In this review, we briefly introduce the essential principles of EEG. We review EEG application during anesthesia practice in the operating room, including the use of processed EEG in depth of anesthesia assessment, raw EEG monitoring in recognizing brain states under different anesthetic agents, the use of EEG in the prevention of perioperative neurocognitive disorders and detection of cerebral ischemia. We then discuss EEG utilization in the intensive care units, including the use of EEG in sedative level titration and prognostication of clinical outcomes. Existing literature provides insight into both the advances and challenges of the clinical applications of EEG. Future study is clearly needed to elucidate the precise EEG features that can reliably optimize perioperative care for individual patients.

Keywords: EEG; cerebral ischemia; cognitive function; depth of anesthesia; prognostication.

Publication types

Review