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Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform health care across medical specialties. Although the application of AI to neuroanesthesiology is just emerging, it will undoubtedly affect neuroanesthesiologists in foreseeable and unforeseeable ways, with potential roles in preoperative patient assessment, airway assessment, predicting intraoperative complications, and monitoring and interpreting vital signs. It will advance the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases due to improved risk identification, data integration, early diagnosis, image analysis, and pharmacological and surgical robotic assistance. Beyond direct medical care, AI could also automate many routine administrative tasks in health care, assist with teaching and training, and profoundly impact neuroscience research. This article introduces AI and its various approaches from a neuroanesthesiology perspective. A basic understanding of the computational underpinnings, advantages, limitations, and ethical implications is necessary for using AI tools in clinical practice and research. The update summarizes recent reports of AI applications relevant to neuroanesthesiology. Providing a holistic view of AI applications, this review shows how AI could usher in a new era in the specialty, significantly improving patient care and advancing neuroanesthesiology research.

For over six decades intra-arterial (IA) drugs have been sporadically used for the treatment of lethal brain diseases. In recent years considerable advance has been made in the IA treatment of retinoblastomas, liver and locally invasive breast cancers, but relatively little progress has been made in the treatment of brain cancers. High resting blood flow and the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), makes IA delivery to the brain tissue far more challenging, compared to other organs. The lack of advance in the field is also partly due to the inability to understand the complex pharmacokinetics of IA drugs as it is difficult to track drug concentrations in sub-second time frame by conventional chemical methods. The advances in optical imaging now provide unprecedented insights into the pharmacokinetics of IA drug and optical tracer delivery. Novel delivery methods, improved IA drug formulations, and optical pharmacokinetics, present us with untested paradigms in pharmacology that could lead to new therapeutic interventions for brain cancers and stroke. The object of this review is to bring into focus the current practice, problems, and the potential of IA drug delivery for treating brain diseases. A concerted effort is needed at basic sciences (pharmacology and drug imaging), and translational (drug delivery techniques and protocol development) levels by the interventional neuroradiology community to advance the field.

It is challenging to counter the widespread criticism of desflurane as the volatile anesthetic agent with the most significant greenhouse gas effect, one which is likely to exacerbate global warming. In 2022, the journal “Anaesthesia” published guidelines for minimizing the impact of anesthetic gases on global warming, which the anesthetic community has largely embraced. One of its recommendations was the removal of desflurane from drug formularies. However, this review underlines the likely benefits of desflurane in the context of actual and potential neurological injuries. With an estimated 13.8 million neurosurgical operations performed annually, desflurane could offer advantages to some of these patients. Therefore, it is imperative to develop an environmentally safe approach for its use rather than remove it from formularies. We discuss desflurane's environmental impact, its unique anesthetic and chemical properties, and its specific application in neuroanesthesia practice. Based on existing evidence, we argue that desflurane could hasten the wake-up of neurosurgical patients. We propose switching to desflurane toward the end of surgery for patients at risk of, or with, neurological injuries. Predictable, early, and monitorable wake-up in these cases could prevent surgical delays, avoid additional investigations, or enable early detection of new deficits. Instead of a blanket ban, desflurane's use should be investigated—systematically and carefully. With education, well-defined indications, limited use, intelligent vaporizers, scavenging, and recycling systems, the use of desflurane could be justified under specific circumstances. Moreover, the problem of environmental damage from inhaled anesthetics must be comprehensively evaluated. Minimizing the use of desflurane is a positive step to protect the environment, but anesthesiologists should enforce other measures to protect the environment with equal urgency.