BJA Advance Access originally published online on November 12, 2007
British Journal of Anaesthesia 2008 100(1):72-77; doi:10.1093/bja/aem314
Effect-site half-time for burst suppression is longer than for hypnosis during anaesthesia with sevoflurane 
1 Department of Anaesthesia, Christchurch Hospital and University of Otago, Christchurch Rolleston Ave, Christchurch, New Zealand
2 Department of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia
* Corresponding author. E-mail: ross.kennedy{at}chmeds.ac.nz
Background: The relationship between measures of drug effect such as bispectral index (BIS) and end-tidal (ET) levels of anaesthetic agents is described by the effect site equilibrium half-time, t1/2(ke0). There are limited data available on sevoflurane t1/2(ke0) during routine anaesthesia and surgery. Preliminary observations suggested t1/2(ke0) for the degree of hypnosis as estimated by BIS is different from that for burst suppression of the electroencephalograph, occurring at deep levels of anaesthesia. This study aimed to determine and compare t1/2(ke0) for these two effects.
Methods: Large changes in ET sevoflurane were produced in 13 subjects during surgery. ET sevoflurane, BIS, and burst suppression ratio (BSR) were recorded every 10 s. Data were divided into epochs with BIS>30 (BIS) or with BSR>10% (burst suppression). Using a non-parametric modelling technique, t1/2(ke0) was determined for each epoch.
Results: There were 36 BIS and 20 burst suppression zones. Mean (SD) t1/2(ke0) for BIS was 3.48 (1.12) min and for BSR 9.9 (6.4) min. In all subjects, t1/2(ke0) BIS<t1/2(ke0) BSR. These differences were statistically significant (P<0.01). The pooled mean effect-site sevoflurane concentration producing a BIS of 50 was 1.23 (SD 0.34) vol% and for a BSR of 50% was 3.3 (0.50) vol%. There were considerable intra- and inter-subject variabilities.
Conclusions: The different values of t1/2(ke0) for these effects suggest different sites or mechanisms of action. These results also establish values of t1/2(ke0) which can be used to provide the real-time estimates of effect-site sevoflurane concentration in clinical practice.
Keywords: anaesthetics volatile, sevoflurane; monitoring, electroencephalography; model, pharmacokinetic
This project was presented in part at the Euroanaesthesia Meeting, Vienna, Austria, May 2005.
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