Impact of Cerebral Monitoring on Neurologic Outcome in Cardiac Surgery

Neurologic complications after cardiac surgery range over a wide spectrum including postoperative delirium (PD), postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) and cerebrovascular accidents (CVA). The incidence of these neurologic events varies depending on the type of surgery and the population studied. The incidence of PD and/or POCD is further influenced by the type of the neurologic tests used. Moreover, the timing of these tests seems to influence the results. Intraoperative cerebral monitoring is gaining importance in the anesthesia field. Recent findings have pointed out that cerebral hypoperfusion on one hand and deep levels of anesthesia on the other hand are major sources of adverse neurological outcomes, both of which can be detected with different non-invasive cerebral monitors.The present investigators are currently using the NeuroSENSE®, a processed electroencephalogram (pEEG) monitor together with cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) on a daily basis in every cardiac patient. This large, prospective, observational study will investigate whether the short- and mid-term neurologic outcome of adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery are in line with observations made on the basis of the pEEG monitor NeuroSENSE® and cerebral NIRS.