Electrophysiological Monitoring of Intraoperative Cerebral Hypoperfusion States

Critical low levels of blood flow and oxygen supply may induce irreversible structural damage of nervous tissue. Ischemic injury follows the impairment of membrane electrical properties1, 2, 3, 11 which may be easily detected by the recording of spontaneous or evoked cerebral electrical activity4, 5, 7, l5, 18. For this reason electroencephalography (EEG) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) have been used to reveal possible functional consequences of low perfusion states8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17.