Innovative Anesthesia Technology at Thibodaux Regional Improves Quality of Patient Care

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center recently installed a new monitor in its operating rooms that provides valuable information to further improve the quality of patient care during and after surgery. The BISTM (pronounced “biz”) monitor enables anesthesiologists to confirm that their patients continually receive a tailored dose of anesthesia throughout surgery. This enables clinicians to reduce the risk of patient awareness with recall during surgery, allows a patient to wake up sooner and recover more quickly from anesthesia. Thibodaux Regional is the first healthcare facility in the region to adopt this innovative technology.

Individual anesthetic needs can vary widely based on such factors as age, weight, and medical history. With the monitor, anesthesia providers can continuously assess a patient's level of consciousness throughout surgery and make fine-tuned adjustments to the types and quantities of anesthetic drugs administered.

According to Sharon Jordan, Director of Perioperative Services, “Many patients are concerned that they may not get the optimal dose of anesthesia. No patient wants to receive too little anesthesia and wake up during surgery or, on the other hand, get more anesthetic than they need.” “With the BIS monitor, we can effectively decrease the chances of underdosing or overdosing by monitoring each patient’s level of consciousness throughout surgery,” says Jordan.

• Reducing the average amount of anesthetic drug administered. Customizing the quantity of drug administered to meet each patient’s needs enables patients to wake-up faster and experience higher-quality recoveries with less grogginess, nausea and vomiting. Because patients feel comfortable sooner, they are often discharged sooner and can continue recovery in the comfort of their own home.
• Reducing the risk of intraoperative awareness with recall. If patients receive too little anesthetic, they may be awake during surgery, aware of what is happening, and retain memory of this experience after the surgery is over. Though a rare phenomenon, an estimated one to two in every 1,000 general anesthesia surgical patients report awareness. BIS monitoring has been shown to help clinicians reduce the risk of awareness with recall by approximately 80 percent.

The BIS monitor works with a non-invasive sensor that is placed on the patient’s forehead to continuously monitor brain waves. The brain waves are computed into a number (ranging from 100 to zero) that correlates with the patient’s level of consciousness: at 100 the patient is wide awake and under 60 the patient is likely to be unconscious, according to clinical studies.
For more information contact Sharon Jordan, Director of Perioperative Services, 985-493-4780.

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