Parametrization of the dying brain: A case report from ICU bed-side EEG monitoring.

Background: Cortical high-frequency activation immediately before death has been reported, raising questions about an enhanced conscious state at this critical time. Here, we analyzed an electroencephalogram (EEG) from a comatose patient during the dying process with a standard bedside monitor and spectral parameterization techniques.

Methods: We report neurophysiologic features of a dying patient without major cortical injury.

Aperiodic component of the electroencephalogram power spectrum reflects the hypnotic level of anaesthesia.

Background: Aperiodic (nonoscillatory) electroencephalogram (EEG) activity can be characterised by its power spectral density, which decays according to an inverse power law. Previous studies reported a shift in the spectral exponent α from consciousness to unconsciousness. We investigated the impact of aperiodic EEG activity on parameters used for anaesthesia monitoring to test the hypothesis that aperiodic EEG activity carries information about the hypnotic component of general anaesthesia.

Impact of Age on the Occurrence of Processed Electroencephalographic Burst Suppression.

Background: Patient age is assumed to be an important risk factor for the occurrence of burst suppression, yet this has still to be confirmed by large datasets.

Methods: In this single-center retrospective analysis at a university hospital, the electronic patient records of 38,628 patients (≥18 years) receiving general anesthesia between January 2016 and December 2018 were analyzed. Risk factors for burst suppression were evaluated using univariate and multivariable analysis.

Electroencephalogram-Based Anesthesia Indices Differently React to Modulations of Alpha-Oscillatory Activity.

Background: The electroencephalographic (EEG) provides the anesthesiologist with information regarding the level of anesthesia. Processed EEG indices are available that reflect the level of anesthesia as a single number. Strong oscillatory EEG activity in the alpha-band may be associated with an adequate level of anesthesia and a lower incidence of cognitive sequelae.

Continuity with caveats in anesthesia: state and response entropy of the EEG.

The growing use of neuromonitoring in general anesthesia provides detailed insights into the effects of anesthetics on the brain. Our study focuses on the processed EEG indices State Entropy (SE), Response Entropy (RE), and Burst Suppression Ratio (BSR) of the GE Entropy Module, which serve as surrogate measures for estimating the level of anesthesia. While retrospectively analyzing SE and RE index values from patient records, we encountered a technical anomaly with a conspicuous distribution of index values.