This postdoctoral fellowship will provide a complete regulatory system for optimal control of
general anesthesia by means of all its three components: hypnosis, analgesia and neuromuscular
blockade but also to introduce the interaction with the hemodynamic system (cardio-regulatory
loops). Disturbances occurring in the operation theatre origin from surgical stimulation, for which
profiles are available. From the point of view of modelling and control hypnosis and
neuromuscular blockade are well characterized. Analgesia is still the missing piece in the
anesthesia paradigm. The outcome of my PhD thesis enables the first steps (i.e. the nociceptor
pathway model makes the link between the surgical stimulation and the perception to the patient
of its effect) towards a model to characterize analgesia which will lead to a full regulatory system.
To date, nowhere worldwide exist such a complete system in simulation studies, let alone in
practice. Such a system will consist of multiple input and multiple output variable analysis, model
development and adaptation and robust, stable, adaptive control algorithms. Safety loops will be
mimicked into the system, as well as surgical disturbances and noxious stimulation profiles. All
these independent feature are available in their single regulatory loop. Their combination and the
effect of their combination on the patient state profiles is yet unknown.