Automatic drug delivery in anesthesia: From the beginning until now

The main goals of general anesthesia are adequate hypnosis, analgesia and maintenance of vital functions. For some special kinds of operations neuromuscular block is essential. Furthermore the patient safety and cost reduction as a case of minimized drug consumption and shortened postoperative recovery phases are part of the main issues to motivate automation in anesthesia. Since the beginning of the eighties engineers and physician are working together in the field of the development of closed-loop systems for drug delivery. The work gives a short overview about the development of the automation in drug delivery systems over the last years without the claim of completeness and expressed the much more vision.