Bispectral Index Monitoring and Combinations in Anesthesia Safety

Anesthesia should ideally provide an adequate level of hypnosis (sleep, unawareness/non-recall), analgesia and a suitable environment for surgery (immobility, muscle relaxation). Monitoring of the depth of anesthesia is recommended to reduce awareness during anesthesia and to improve the administration of anesthetic drugs. The bispectral index (BIS) is a numerical scale based on the analysis of EEG parameters and can reduce the adverse effects associated with over- or under-dosing of anesthetic drugs. BIS is the most studied and best documented method of cerebral monitoring This summary is based on selected literature on BIS monitoring and its combination with other monitoring modalities over the last 20 years.