Comparison of the Conox (qCON) and Sedline (PSI) depth of anaesthesia indices to predict the hypnotic effect during desflurane general anaesthesia with ketamine.

Comparison of two depth of anesthesia indices, qCON (Conox) and PSI (Sedline), during desflurane sedation and their sensitivity to random ketamine boluses in patients undergoing routine surgery. The performance of desflurane and ketamine on both indices was analyzed for 11 patients, and the ketamine sensitivity was compared with another group of 11 patients under sevoflurane and propofol.The MOAA/S was used to determine sedation level and pain. Different boluses of ketamine ranging from 10 to 30 mg where randomly administered in both groups and the effect on the indexes were measured after 4 min.The indices were recorded during the whole surgery, and their correlations with the desflurane concentration and the discrimination between awake and anesthetized states were evaluated with the prediction probability statistic (Pk). The Pk values, mean (se), discriminating between awake and anesthetized states were 0.974(0.016) for the qCON and 0.962(0.0123) for the PSI, while the 1-Pk statistic for the qCON and the PSI with respect to the desflurane concentration were 0.927(0.016) and 0.918(0.018), respectively, with no statistically significant differences.The agreement between both depth of hypnosis parameters was assessed under the Bland-Altman plot and the Spearman correlation, rs = 0.57(p < 0.001).During the sevoflurane-propofol anesthesia, which served as a control group, both indices experienced a similar behavior with a no significant change of their median values after ketamine. However, during desflurane anesthesia the qCON index did not change significantly after ketamine administration, qCON (before = 33 (4), after = 30 (17); Wilcoxon, p = 0.89), while the PSI experienced a significant increase, PSI (before = 31(6), after = 39(16) Wilcoxon, p = 0.013).This study shows that qCON and PSI have similar performance under desflurane with good discrimination between the awake and anesthetized states. While both indices exhibited similar behavior under ketamine boluses under a sevoflurane-propofol anesthesia, the qCON index had a better performance under ketamine during desflurane anesthesia.