Is near-infrared spectroscopy a reliable predictor of neurologic outcome in hypothermic total circulatory arrest in humans ?

Abstract

Near infrared spectroscopy was used to monitor continuous cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) during 2 cases of hypothermic cardiac arrest (HCA). HCA time was 28 minutes and 41 minutes in these, cases. Desaturation did not occur during total circulatory arrest. rSO2 values decreased during rewarming in case 1, but remained above 60% in both cases. There was no neurologic impairement in case 1 postoperatively whereas case 2 died in the early postoperative period due to tumoral pulmonary embolism. There are limited number of studies concerning continuous spectroscopic measurement of rSO2 and the cri¬tical levels associated with neurologic impairement have not been determined. These cases provide 2 examples of rSO2 changes during HCA in the same aetiolqgic and operative procedure.