An Agentic LLM Framework for Autonomous Surgical Continuum Monitoring: ReAct-Driven Tool-Use Agents for Presurgical, Intraoperative, and Postsurgical Cardiopulmonary Care.

backgroundRule-based multi-agent system (MAS) architectures for healthcare coordination rely on hardcoded decision trees that cannot generalise to novel clinical scenarios or self-correct reasoning errors. These limitations are acute in surgical continuum care, where patients traverse presurgical risk stratification, intraoperative monitoring, postsurgical ICU, ward care, and remote rehabilitation over days to weeks-a complexity no fixed-policy agent architecture can address without prohibitive rule engineering.

objectiveWe present the first agentic large language model (LLM) framework for autonomous end-to-end surgical continuum monitoring, superseding the prior rule-based MAS Digital Twin. Six ReAct-driven tool-use agents replace fixed-policy agents with dynamic reasoning, multi-hop evidence retrieval, and Reflexion self-correction while maintaining mandatory confidence-gated Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) gating at every care-pathway-modifying decision.

methodsThe framework is grounded in the ReAct paradigm and Reflexion self-evaluation, embedded within the DETER Digital Twin state engine S(t). Each agent is specified by a ReAct loop signature, a ten-function clinical tool registry, and confidence-gated HITL escalation logic. Inter-agent coordination replaces the rule-based Priority Queue Manager with an LLM-mediated Coordination Supervisor Agent reasoning over competing resource requests.

resultsThe framework delivers: (i) six formally specified ReAct-loop agents with explicit tool registries and authorisation boundaries; (ii) a confidence-gated HITL architecture that reduces alert fatigue while preserving safety for ambiguous clinical scenarios; (iii) an extended conflict resolution function P(p,t,context) incorporating surgical phase and DETER deterioration trajectory gradient; (iv) Reflexion self-correction with a formal N_max = 2 termination condition and Clinical Factuality Verification Layer; and (v) a multi-phase Digital Twin state engine extending S(t) to the full surgical continuum.

conclusionsThe proposed framework represents a fundamental architectural departure from rule-based clinical AI-from hardcoded policies to dynamic reasoning, from static retrieval to multi-hop tool-use chains, and from fixed escalation thresholds to confidence-gated self-evaluation-providing a formally specified, clinically deployable foundation for next-generation autonomous surgical care coordination.