title: Postoperative confusion preceded by decreased frontal lobe haemoglobin oxygen saturation.
abstract: We describe a 58-year-old male patient with confusion and prolonged recovery after liver transplantation. A cause was not apparent for the confusion, but during surgery, monitoring of the frontal lobe cerebral haemoglobin oxygen saturation by near-infrared spectrophotometry showed cerebral hypo-oxygenation despite optimization of conventional cardiovascular parameters. It is possible that intraoperative cerebral ischaemia is the cause of postsurgical confusion and with near-infrared spectrophotometry this hypothesis may be tested clinically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Madsen
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Secher
mesh_terms: D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D003221:Confusion / Q000209:etiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D020925:Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain / Q000150:complications; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D010291:Paresis / Q000209:etiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D010100:Oxygen