Parametric Modeling and Deep Learning for Enhancing Pain Assessment in Postanesthesia

Objective: The problem of reliable and widely accepted measures of pain is still open. It follows the objective of this work as pain estimation through post-surgical trauma modeling and classification, to increase the needed reliability compared to measurements only.Methods: This article proposes (i) a recursive identification method to obtain the frequency response and parameterization using fractional-order impedance models (FOIM), and (ii) deep learning with convolutional neural networks (CNN) classification algorithms using time-frequency data and spectrograms. The skin impedance measurements were conducted on 12 patients throughout the postanesthesia care in a proof-of-concept clinical trial. Recursive least-squares system identification was performed using a genetic algorithm for initializing the parametric model. The online parameter estimates were compared to the self-reported level by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for analysis and validation of the results. Alternatively, the inputs to CNNs were the spectrograms extracted from the time-frequency dataset, being pre-labeled in four intensities classes of pain during offline and online training with the NRS.Results: The tendency of nociception could be predicted by monitoring the changes in the FOIM parameters' values or by retraining online the network. Moreover, the tissue heterogeneity, assumed during nociception, could follow the NRS trends. The online predictions of retrained CNN have more specific trends to NRS than pain predicted by the offline population-trained CNN.Conclusion: We propose tailored online identification and deep learning for artefact corrupted environment. The results indicate estimations with the potential to avoid over-dosing due to the objectivity of the information.Significance: Models and artificial intelligence (AI) allow objective and personalized nociception-antinociception prediction in the patient safety era for the design and evaluation of closed-loop analgesia controllers.