Neural blockade anesthesia monitor

The ability to monitor the effectiveness of an anesthetic is an area that has not kept pace with the rest of medical technology. Using traditional systems engineering methods, a prototype monitor for local anesthetics was successfully designed and validated. This article describes the clinical physiology of local anesthetics, the selection of technologies to measure the physiological responses, the monitor design process, and the results of clinical trials. The subject neural blockade monitor provides a noninvasive, real-time tool for the anesthesiologist. Synergistic blending of systems engineering and biomedical engineering resulted in a highly effective prototype that was developed in a relatively short period of time.