Validation of inflationary non-invasive blood pressure monitoring in adult surgical patients

Oscillometric determination of blood pressure may be advantageous, as cuff inflation requires lower cuff pressure and shorter duration than deflation. In this observational study, we compared the blood pressure value, cuff pressure, and duration of cuff inflation between a prototype of inflationary non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) and conventional deflationary NIBP in adult patients during anesthesia. Three hundred and twenty-three pairs of measurements were obtained from 64 subjects. The bias and precision of systolic pressure and diastolic pressure were 2.9 ± 8.3 and 5.6 ± 6.1 mmHg, respectively. Inflationary NIBP could better determine NIBP with lower cuff pressure than deflationary NIBP (124 ± 22 vs. 160 ± 33 mmHg, p < 0.05). Inflationary NIBP could also determine NIBP more quickly (13.0 ± 2.3 vs. 32.7 ± 13.6 s, p < 0.05). These data suggest that inflationary NIBP may reduce cuff-related discomfort and complications, and has reasonable accuracy compared to deflationary NIBP in adult surgical patients.