Despite historical acknowledgement of the potential for EEG monitoring of brain states during anesthesia, current standards for assessing whether patients are adequately anesthetized include only indirect measures of brain state (i.e. changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tone) and presumed drug interactions. However, our understanding of systems-level brain mechanisms of anesthesia has developed significantly in recent years, describing how altered states of arousal, induced by anesthetics, relate to EEG activity.

It is possible to link recognizable EEG signatures to anesthetics states produced by most commonly-used anesthetic drugs. Familiarity with these signatures can allow anesthesia care providers to make more detailed and accurate assessments of the anesthetic state of their patients. The videos posted on this channel are intended to provide a very brief introduction to the EEG signal as it relates to altered states of arousal caused by anesthesia.