Anaesthetic drugs & techniques
Contact heat evoked potentials as a measure of the analgesic component of anesthesia – a patient study
Authors' conclusion
CHEPs monitoring appears unsuitable for direct assessment of the analgesic component of general anesthesia.
Study context
- Population
- Adult ASA I or II patients; heat stimulus 20% above individual pain threshold to volar forearm119 analysed
- Participants
- 120 participants
- Comparison
- Remifentanil at 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 or 0.4 μg/kg/min; then propofol to loss of responsiveness
- Primary endpoint
- (1) Correlation between remifentanil-induced changes in VAS and CHEP amplitudes; (2) correlation between CHEP amplitude reduction and remifentanil infusion rate
Methodological detailsdose-response, four infusion rates
- Dose-response
- Four infusion rates
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Correlation visual analog scale (VAS) vs CHEP amplitudes (not significant)
r=−0.17; p=0.868
Correlation remifentanil dosage vs CHEP amplitudes
r=0.29; p=0.003
Further findings
Remifentanil dosage vs VAS
- Strong inverse correlation
- r=−0.46; p<0.001
Sedation (OAA/S score and middle latency auditory evoked potentials (MLAEPs))
- Correlation between remifentanil dosage and degree of sedation
Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) after propofol-induced loss of responsiveness
- CHEPs no longer detectable
Original publication
Contact heat evoked potentials as a measure of the analgesic component of anesthesia – a patient study. J Clin Monit Comput. Published 17 September 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →