title: Cerebral oximetry: the standard monitor of the future?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is an increasing interest in the application of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a monitoring tool in noncardiac surgery. This review summarizes the latest developments and current evidence for the use of NIRS in the noncardiac intraoperative setting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Unanticipated intraoperative physiological disturbances and a substantial interpatient variability in the limits of cerebral autoregulation, pose our patients at risk for adverse cerebral outcome, if the brain is not monitored specifically. In addition to a means to monitor the brain, NIRS has been shown to allow an estimate of overall organ oxygenation. Preliminary data suggest a relationship between cerebral desaturation and both neurologic and major organ morbidity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NIRS offers noninvasive monitoring of cerebral and overall organ oxygenation in a wide range of clinical scenarios. There is an increasing evidence that the optimized cerebral oxygenation is associated with improved outcomes in both neurologic and major organ morbidity in a variety of surgical settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Anneliese
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moerman
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Hert
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative / Q000379:methods*; D010092:Oximetry / Q000379:methods*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*