Closed-loop control of anaesthetic drug delivery as research tool

Although closed-loop systems have a long tradition in engineering, their co ntinued use in patients care is limited to the last 20 years, with the exce ption of Bickford's pioneering work in 1950. During the past 2 years it has been shown that automated closed-loop systems for drug delivery can provid e unique study designs for clinical research allowing experimental setups n ot realizable by traditional means. It is, however, evident that a lot of r esearch and development has to be done on therapeutic closed-loop systems t o solve the many questions related to the reliability and safety involved i n the use of therapeutic closed systems that routine clinical setting impos es on an automatic system.