Pre- and postoperative fatigue in patients undergoing neurovascular surgery
18 June 2018
Increased eye closure time per minute (ECT/min) has been used as an indicator of decreased alertness. We measured eye movements with electro-oculography before and after an operation before the subjects started to perform computerised tasks measuring attention, working memory that increased in difficulty and pace during the test session. All subject were full-time employed. The ECT time increased in the subjects after the cognitive task sessions indicating increased fatigue. Eye closure time and blinks can be used in everyday life. They can be used to measure changes in fatigue during a working day. As fatigue is a common cause of human errors and accidents, the possibility to identify increasing fatigue objectively can be used as an alerting signal for taking a break and the need for recovery to overcome fatigue and improve vigilance and performance.