Brain monitoring during retrograde cerebral perfusion in operations on the thoracic aorta

Surgical treatment of aneurysms of the ascending aorta and transverse arch still represent a challenging situation for cardiac surgeons. Great strides have been made since the introduction of deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest (1, 2, 5, 8) in reducing neurological complications associated with these procedure. Nevertheless, neurological injury as a result of temporary disconnection of cerebral blood flow during the period of circulatory arrest still remains an important complication in operation performed on the aortic arch.