Meta-analysis of the effect of entropy-assisted general anesthesia on the quality of postoperative recovery

To evaluate the effect of the quality of postoperative anesthetic resuscitation in patients with entropy index monitoring assisted general anesthesia versus standard clinical practice. METHODS: The randomized controlled trials on the application of entropy index monitoring in general anesthesia were searched in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and other databases by computer. The data were collected from inception to January 2022. Two researchers independently screened the retrieved literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and used Cochrane’s risk-of-bias assessment criteria to evaluate the quality of the literature. The evaluation indicators included respiratory recovery time, extubation time, consciousness recovery time, emergence agitation, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), and intraoperative awareness. The RevMan 5.4.1 software was used for the meta-analysis of the data. RESULTS: A total of 860 patients from 10 eligible randomized controlled trials were included in this study. The results showed that compared with the control group, the respiratory recovery time (MD = −3.37, 95% CI: −5.09 to −1.85, P < .0001), extubation time (MD = −4.57, 95% CI: −6.08 to −3.95, P < .00001), and consciousness recovery time (MD = −4.95, 95% CI: −7.21 to −2.70, P < .00001) in the entropy index group were significantly shortened. The incidence of emergence agitation in the entropy index group (RR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.11–0.47, P < .0001) decreased significantly. The incidence of PONV (RR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.27–0.79, P = .004) was significantly reduced. However, the incidence of intraoperative awareness (RR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.04–3.16, P = .34) wasn’t significantly different. CONCLUSION: The application of the entropy index can improve the recovery quality of patients under general anesthesia, not only shortening the postoperative recovery time but also reducing the occurrence of agitation and PONV. It does not affect the incidence of intraoperative awareness.