A MEASURE OF INTRAOPERATIVE ATTENTION TO MONITOR DISPLAYS

Vigilance is an important but difficult to measure attribute in anesth esia practitioners. We present a modified standard method to assess in traoperative vigilance toward electronic data displays. The response t ime to detect a simulated abnormal value on the physiologic monitor wa s measured. Eight anesthesia residents were studied during 60 surgical procedures. Responses to 439 abnormal values were analyzed. The avera ge response time was 61 +/- 61 s (mean +/- SD), and 56% of the detecti ons were made within 60 s. However, 16% of the abnormal values were un detected during the 5 min that they were displayed. Response times and the rate of missed events were greater during induction of anesthesia (a time of high workload) than during the maintenance or emergence ph ases of anesthesia. Response times were shorter during procedures on A SA 1 patients than on ASA 3 patients. The results suggest that anesthe siologists usually quickly detect abnormal values on physiologic monit ors and that less attention is devoted to monitors during periods of h igh workload.