General anesthesia increases temporal precision and decreases power of the brainstem auditory-evoked response-related segments of the electroencephalogram.

Background: Brainstem auditory-evoked responses (BAEP) have been reported to be unchanged in the presence of drugs used for induction and maintenance of general anesthesia. The aim of this study was to investigate if the signal segments after the auditory stimulus that are used to average the evoked response change under the influence of general anesthesia.

Methods: BAEPs of 156 patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia were investigated.