Comparison of Bispectral Index Values in Patients With and Without Down's Syndrome

About 1 in every 700 babies born in the United States has Down's Syndrome (DS; Trisomy 21), 99% of whom have some degree of intellectual disability. Recent advances in medicine have resulted in a dramatically improved lifespan of about 25 to 60 years of age. Yet, there is limited data about anesthetic management in this increasing patient population. The bispectral index (BIS) monitor is a non-invasive monitoring device that reports a value between 0 and 100correlating to level of consciousness of an individual. A value of 0 indicates lack of brain activity while 100 indicates an awake/alert state. This monitor can be used to assess the depth of anesthesia. Patients with intellectual disability from congenital neurological diseases have lower BIS values compared to patients without any neurological impairment (Valkenburg 2009). The results may suggest that DS patients would require less anesthetic drugs compared to patients without any neurological impairment. To date, there are no studies in DS patients.