Sleep Deprivation and the Vigilance of Anesthesiologists During Simulated Surgery

Abstract

The effects of sleep deprivation on performance of anesthesiologists was studied using a simulation of surgical patient monitoring functions and the analytic procedures of signal detection theory. The multi-channel simulation was first tested on 36 undergraduate volunteers. The resulting receiver-operating characteristics were highly asymmetric. Observer sensitivity varied significantly as a function of the processing parameter, observation time. In a second experiment, the simulation was used to assess monitoring efficiency of anesthesiologists under rested conditions and after mild sleep deprivation. The monitoring performance of four of six anesthesiologists tested was degraded by sleep deprivation. No differences in monitoring efficiency for short periods under alerted conditions were observed. However, systematic deficits in complex cognitive processing were present. The role of simulation in studying factors affecting performance in highly specialized, professional occupational groups is discussed.