The impact of electroencephalography, pressure, and pO2 monitoring on the risk of stroke during cardiopulmonary bypass.

Currently it is possible to account for an incidence of perfusion-related perioperative stroke of about 1%. The sources of stroke over which cardiac surgeons have some control relate to the perfusion circuit, the conducting of coronary pulmonary bypass, the operative approach to the patient with intracardiac clot, maneuvers that eliminate air during left heart procedures, control of biochemical factors such as hyperglycemia, and to the choice of anesthetic agents and drugs given during the procedure. The availability of equipment that allows in-line continuous monitoring of arterial and venous O2 saturations, control of physiologic parameters within certain limits, selective use of encephalographic monitoring for high-risk patients, along with careful attention to the details of the procedure, may allow the surgeon to alter favorably the numbers of patients suffering neurologic complications as a consequence of cardiac surgery. We have limited our investigation in this study to those neurologic events occurring from the onset of anesthesia through the recovery from anesthesia when the patient can be neurologically examined.