Total knockout: towards personalized anesthesia

A team of researchers at the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL; Lausanne, Switzerland) have developed a continuous drug monitoring sensor that can measure anesthetic levels in patients during surgery. The researchers, from EPFL’s Integrated Systems Laboratory working in association with the Lausanne University Hospital (Lausanne, Switzerland) and the Polytechnic University of Turin (Turin, Italy) reported their findings in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems. The biosensor measures propofol concentrations in a patient’s blood. Using sensor electrodes, the novel ‘smart-pen’ electronic system offers a less costly and less bulky method of monitoring drug concentrations in human serum. Shaped like...