Brain monitoring

Abstract

Invasive measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and blood pressure (BP) are important adjuncts to many different types of animal surgery. CBF can be measured by a number of different methods, including invasive methods such as placing probes into the subarachnoid space (Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 281:H308-H315, 2001), which can lead to brain injury, and noninvasive methods such as rheoencephalography (Physiol. Meas. 25:1371-1384, 2004) and radiography (Magn. Reson. Med. 49:479-487, 2003), which are expensive. This section will describe a relatively simple method to measure CBF that is cheap, easy to replicate, and does not result in damage to the parenchyma. BP monitoring is used commonly in most types of surgery. There are a number of noninvasive machines available that are easy to use and quite reliable. However, the invasive measurement of BP is more accurate. The placement of a femoral line will be described in detail here. © 2009 Humana Press.