Medasense Biometrics
PMD 700
Patients under general
anesthesia can't tell you
how much pain they're
in, but this finger-
mounted probe can.
"It's a really interest-
ing concept," says
Jaime Baratta, MD,
director of regional
anesthesia at Sidney
Kimmel Medical
College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "With it, you
could end up having patients in recovery who are more comfortable,
because they got the optimal amount of analgesia intraoperatively."
The sensor tracks changes in nociception pain caused by external
stimulation and uses an algorithm to convert that data into a number
between zero and 100, indicating the level of pain the patient is feeling.
"As things stand now, we have to rely on hemodynamic parameters
— things like heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate if
patients are breathing spontaneously," says Dr. Baratta. "And it can
be difficult to tell how much to titrate. You want to make sure
patients wake up quickly and comfortably, but if you give them excess
opioids, they may have respiratory depression."
The company expects the product to be available in Europe as soon
as this year, and anticipates FDA approval in about a year.
"If patients are more comfortable in the PACU and also awake, they
could be ready to discharge faster," says Dr. Baratta. "If this
improves patient flow, it could be a good investment."
1 0 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6
• PAIN SCORE The PMD 700 can help providers minimize the discomfort felt by unconscious patients.
