Technique for Quantifying the Duration of Intravenous Anesthetic Effect

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Background: Several recent studies have analyzed the relationship between pharmacokinetic parameters and the rate of decrease in concentration after discontinuation of a continuous drug infusion. Although these studies have clarified our understanding of those aspects of pharmacokinetics most relevant to anesthesia practice, they do not directly address the issue of the duration of drug effect, which will be a function of both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variables. This paper extends these concepts by presenting a method to unify pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in a measure of duration of drug effect that is applicable when the drug effect is assessed in a binary, response/no response fashion.