RESUMO
As a step forward towards the installation of a totally computerized anesthesia, we tried to integrate target controlled infusion pump with its ability to determine effect site drug concentration and monitoring of state and response entropy in the patient as a feed back system for fine tuning of intravenous anesthesia, comparing this system with the regular dose based total intravenous. 40 patients included in this study, were randomly arranged in two groups [20 each] They were scheduled for elective ventral hernia surgery. The first group received dose based total intravenous anesthesia [TIVA], the second group received entropy modulated target controlled infusion [TCI]. We measured the amount of propofol and remifentanil used per kg of the patient weight per minute of anesthesia, time to extubation. the time needed from the end of anesthesia till a recovery score [Aldrete score] of 9 or 10. mean blood pressure and heart rate, postoperative pain score and the incidence of intraoperative awareness. It was found that there were no differences between the two groups in hemodynamic or pain data, also no significant difference in the rate of propofol used but there was significant reduction of remifentanil rate [23.11% reduction] in group TCI if compared with the other group. From this work it is concluded that the use of sophisticated TCI machine and sophisticated entropy monitor does not necessanly results in better outcome nor it is cost reasonable