Depth of anaesthesia monitors and the latest algorithms.

This paper reviews the existing depth of anaesthesia (DoA) monitors and their algorithms and also proposes to improve their performance from four aspects. An ideal DoA monitor should be able to suggest a personalised drug dosage, to predict and provide early warnings when dosages are inappropriate, to be portable and highly cost-effective. The limitations of the existing DoA monitors commonly include unsatisfied data filtering techniques, time delay for the monitoring responses, and inflexible and low noise immunity problems. The latest research results show that their performance can be improved using up-to-date computing technology and neurophysiology. The findings in Chinese market review show that neither the imported nor the Chinese domestic DoA monitors are widely utilised at hospitals, but the demand for DoA monitors is very high. Clearly there is a high demand which encourages the development of a better DoA monitor and its mass production in China.