Monitoring is essential to safe anaesthesia and should be applied to any case wherever an anaesthetic is conducted. Safe monitoring of an anaesthetised patient includes the presence of a trained anaesthetist together with clinical and technical monitoring. Regular checking and maintenance of equipment should be undertaken. Safe monitoring aspects of the anaesthetic machine are emphasised in this chapter. Vital technical monitoring includes the use of electrocardiogram trace, pulse oximetry, respiratory rate, blood pressure and capnography. Depth of anaesthesia monitoring is discussed during the use of total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA). Similarly, the use of neuromuscular monitoring is described as essential for patients who have received neuromuscular blocking drugs.

Specialised patient monitoring devices may be used in some cases, such as the use of invasive cardiac output monitoring, arterial or central venous pressures, neurological evoked potentials, or cerebral oximetry.