Irvine-based Masimo Corp., which makes patient monitoring devices, said a study found one of its products effectively monitored babies and toddlers undergoing surgeries.
Researchers wanted to measure the effects of anesthetic doses that are sometimes “greater than needed in surgery” on children, Masimo said in a statement.
The researchers used a Masimo SedLine electroencephalograph, or EEG monitoring device, which is available on the Root Patient Monitoring and Connectivity Platform. This device monitor’s brain functions during surgery and is approved for use on adult patients.
To check its accuracy during the children’s surgeries, the researchers used a separate 10-lead EEG device.
The most important advantage of a SedLine monitor is it only has four electrode leads rather than a traditional EEG that has 10 leads, making it advantageous in surgery because it doesn’t interfere with the tubing and other equipment for monitoring anesthesia. A lead is a wire from the monitor to the electrode on a specific point on the body.
They monitored 51 children ranging in age from newborns to 37 months old, who were undergoing scheduled surgeries requiring general anesthesia.
The goal was to monitor an isoelectric event, or a flat line. The Masimo device identified 47 isoelectric events during the surgeries, events that were confirmed by the secondary device.
“The Masimo SedLine EEG could be applied quickly without interfering with anesthesia care and could accurately record EEG in infants and young children in the operating room, suggesting it could be used to adjust anesthesia dosing,” Dr. Ian Yuan said in the statement.
The study, recently published in Anesthesia & Analgesia, was conducted by Yuan and colleagues at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.
About 6 million pediatric patients undergo anesthesia annually. About 25% of those patients are infants.
Masimo’s technology is used on more than 100 million patients worldwide. It is also the primary pulse oximetry at nine of the top 10 hospitals listed on the 2018-2019 U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals Honor Roll.
Its stock has about doubled in the past year. It had a $7.7 billion market cap as of last week.
