NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 2005--The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has released documents concerning intraoperative awareness and the role of brain function monitoring, including Aspect Medical Systems’ BIS technology. The documents include a draft practice advisory statement that was developed by an ASA practice parameter task force and an update to ASA members written by ASA President, Eugene P. Sinclair, MD. Both documents are available on the ASA Web site (http://www.asahq.org/). ASA members and the public now have the opportunity to review the draft advisory and provide feedback to the practice parameter task force. Based on this feedback, a final report will be submitted for approval to the house of delegates at the ASA annual meeting in October. According to an interim statement issued by the ASA to summarize the draft practice advisory, the task force report indicated that brain function monitoring may be useful to help reduce the risk of awareness, particularly in high risk cases. Furthermore, the decision to use brain monitoring should be made by individual practitioners on a case-by-case basis.
