Assessing Cerebral Blood Flow Autoregulation During Surgery in the Head-up Position

Neurological injury after elective shoulder surgery in the beach chair position is thought to result from cerebral hypoperfusion and should therefore be preventable by appropriate hemodynamic monitoring and management. This proposal will use a system to continuously monitor cerebral blood flow autoregulation to identify safe arterial blood pressure targets in patients in the beach chair position, compared with a control cohort having orthopedic surgery in the lateral decubitus supine position. Autoregulation data will be compared against a new, highly specific and sensitive serum biomarker of neurologic injury, glial fibrillary acid protein, and postoperative neurocognitive testing results.