Using acoustics to make operations even safer
Although the vast majority of hospital operations are carried out completely successfully, around one in 550 patients experience some awareness or recall of events during surgery. This is particularly a risk in operations carried out under minimal anaesthesia such as trauma, cardiac surgery or Caesarian section. Full awareness during surgery is very rare, but can be highly traumatic for patients.
Dr Steve Bell and Dr David Simpson at the University of Southampton's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) with consultant anaesthetist Dr David Smith have secured £21,000 in grants from the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia and Gerald Kerkut Trust to explore the effects of anaesthesia on brain connectivity. This will help in the development of a reliable tool to measure whether patients are sufficiently anaesthetised during operations.
"We will be comparing two methods of measuring brain activity and looking at how activity changes with anaesthesia." explains Steve. "One method looks at the strength of connections between brain areas and the other explores how the brain reacts to sound stimuli. Steve's original PhD thesis was in this area and he is looking forward to continuing this research.
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Prof David M Simpson BSc, PhD
Prof David Simpson is Professor of Biomedical Signal Processing within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. His research and teaching focuses on the application of engineering techniques in a medical context. He aims to address real-world problems using computational data analysis (signal processing) methods for the benefit of patients and other users.
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Dr Steven Bell BSc, MSc, PhD
Dr Steven Bell is Associate Professor in Audiology within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
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