Monitoring the integrity of saccadic eye movements as a test of post-anaesthetic recovery (author's transl)

Abstract

After reviewing various tests of consciousness which can be used during the post-anaesthetic period, the authors chose to analyse the involvement of the visual receptor during different stages between sleep and complete recovery of consciousness, by an electro-oculographic (EOG) method, providing recordings of the displacement of the optical axis. In states of full consciousness the eye explores a static flat surface in saccades separated by pauses. During sleep caused by anaesthesia or by other types of drugs, the integrity of the eye positioning movements by saccades is impaired, and the EOG shows a sinusoidal recording (smooth movements). In one group of patients, regaining of consciousness was monitored throughout and the EOG reording reflected the clinical state of the patient. In a second group, the state of consciousness was monitored 2 hours after the last injection of the anaesthetic drug, so that correlations could be considered with the type of anaesthesia used. Th conclusion concerns the practical interest of the method (short term hospitalisation after general anaesthetic, medico-legal use due to the existence of a recording) and its basic use in the experimental study of new drugs in man.