Anthony G. Doufas, M.D., Ph.D.

Clinical Focus

• Anesthesia

Administrative Appointments

• Associate Editor, Anesthesia & Analgesia, International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) (2008 - present)
• Committee Member, Anesthesia Department Quality Management and Peer Review Committee (2008 - present)
• Committee Member, Task Force for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Stanford Hospital and Clinics (2007 - present)
• Director of Research, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, University of Louisville (2004 - 2006)

Honors and Awards

• Research Award, Department of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine (2008)
• Research Award, 28th Atlantic Anesthesiology Residents Research Conference (2002)
• Research Award, International Union of Angiology (2001)
• Research Award, European Society of Vascular Surgery (1998)
• Research Award, Hellenic Endocrine Society (1998)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Anesthesia

Community & International Work

• Associate Editor, Anesthesia & Analgesia 

Web Site Links

• Clinical Anesthesia Research at Stanford

Current Research Interests

My major research interests focus on the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PKPD) evaluation of commonly used sedatives and anesthetics, as well as in the PKPD and mathematical foundations of closed-loop control of anesthesia using EEG as the controlled variable.
In particular, I am interested in identifying disease-related or other patient phenotypes, which are associated with alterations in the clinical pharmacology of anesthetics and could affect perioperative outcomes. Currently, I study the effect of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) on pain processing before and after the administration of opioids in patients suffering from SDB and in healthy volunteers. Also, in the same area of research we investigate the effect of obstructive sleep apnea on postoperative neurobehavioral and medical outcomes in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. In particular, we are interested in identifying metabolic and genetic markers for suboptimum neurobehavioral outcomes and correlate those with the severity of nocturnal hypoxia in this patient population.
In collaboration with the Department of Computer Science in Texas Tech University we develop a new system to control anesthesia using the bispectrum of the EEG (BIS) as the controlled variable. This control strategy is based on a method of unsupervised learning called reinforcement learning (RL) and has already demonstrated an excellent performance in simulation studies. The application of RL-based anesthetic control in human subjects is upcoming.

Clinical Trials

• Study of Pain Processing in Subjects Suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea Recruiting
• Evaluation of a Closed-Loop Control System for Administering Patient-Specific Anesthesia No longer recruiting
• Measured Hypocretin Levels and Recovery After Hip Surgery Enrolling by Invitation
• The Minimum Aveolar Concentration (MAC) of Sevoflurane for Immobility in Patients Undergoing Surgery for the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Not yet recruiting

Publications

• Fuzzy control for closed-loop, patient-specific hypnosis in intraoperative patients: A simulation study. Moore BL, Pyeatt LD, Doufas AG. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009: 1 3083-6
• The Performance of Compartmental and Physiologically Based Recirculatory Pharmacokinetic Models for Propofol: A Comparison Using Bolus, Continuous, and Target-Controlled Infusion Data. Masui K, Upton RN, Doufas AG, Coetzee JF, Kazama T, Mortier EP, Struys MM. Anesth Analg. 2009
• Neuromuscular block differentially affects immobility and cortical activation at near-minimum alveolar concentration anesthesia. Doufas AG, Komatsu R, Orhan-Sungur M, Sengupta P, Wadhwa A, Mascha E, Shafer SL, Sessler DI. Anesth Analg. 2009; 109 (4): 1097-104
• Automated responsiveness monitor to titrate propofol sedation. Doufas AG, Morioka N, Mahgoub AN, Bjorksten AR, Shafer SL, Sessler DI. Anesth Analg. 2009; 109 (3): 778-86
• Lower-body warming mimics the normal epidural-induced reduction in the shivering threshold. Doufas AG, Morioka N, Maghoub AN, Mascha E, Sessler DI. Anesth Analg. 2008; 106 (1): 252-6, table of contents