A prospective study.
University hospital.
A total of 61 patients (84 % male) with a mean age of 70.39 ± 4.69 on a waiting list for CABG surgery were enrolled in the study.
A complete neurocognitive evaluation was performed 1 day before surgery as well as 4 to 7 days and 1 month after surgery. During surgery, rSO2 was monitored continuously.
POCD was defined as a reduction of 1 standard deviation on 2 or more neuropsychologic indices. Forty-six patients (80.7 % ) developed early POCD, and 23 (38.3 % ) showed late POCD. Patients whose rSO2 decreased to less than 50 % during the surgery experienced more POCD 4 to 7 days after surgery (p = 0.04). In addition, a decrease of more than 30 % from the patient's baseline rSO2 was associated with POCD 1 month after surgery (p = 0.03).
Intraoperative cerebral oxygen desaturation is associated with early and late POCD in elderly patients. Cerebral oximetry is a promising tool in the prediction of subtle neuropsychologic deficits and further studies are needed.