Anesthesia Alarms in Surgical Context

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Abstract
This paper describes an observational study of anesthetists' response to alarms in the operating room across four different types of procedure (laparoscopic, arthroscopic, cardiac, and intracranial) and three phases of a procedure (induction, maintenance, and emergence). Alarms were classified as requiring a corrective response, being intended, being ignored, or functioning as a reminder. Results revealed quite strong effects of the type of procedure and phase of procedure on the number and rate of alarms. Responses to alarms such as apnea varied strongly across phase, whereas other alarms were confined to specific situations. These results were interpreted in light of their significance for the development of smart alarm systems.