ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly presents the genesis of the electrocardiography (ECG) signal, its different waves and its analysis. To ensure patient safety, physiological parameters (cardiac rhythm, heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygenation) are monitored during surgery. Monitors of these parameters are usually wired to an anesthesia monitoring station, these wires often need to be disconnected before and after the surgical procedure. Concern about electromagnetic interferences generated by electrosurgical units (ESU) and wireless systems have prevented the use and development of wireless devices in the operating room. To overcome these problems, to reduce the number of necessary wires or tube, to improve hygiene, and finally to reduce the time and facilitate continuous monitoring including during the transfer of patients from an operating room to a recovery room, a wireless device is designed and validated. The highlights of this study are presented in this chapter. The use of the ESU is indispensable in the operating rooms; however, it produces a radio-frequency (RF) alternative current to cut or/and to coagulate the tissue. Therefore, ESU generates electrical artifacts (EA) that disturb the ECG signal. To remove EAs, we have proposed different methods based on singular values decomposition, wavelets and empirical mode decomposition. A comparison of these methods is performed.
