Day 3 somatosensory evoked potential grade related to information-processing speed, working memory, and the ability to attend to tasks 1 yr after traumatic brain injury. Day 3 somatosensory evoked potential grade had the strongest relationship with functional outcome. Somatosensory evoked potential grades were not related to emotional well-being.

Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is an excellent model for studying potential intraoperative cerebral ischemia under controlled physiological conditions and, accordingly, many different monitoring techniques have been employed over many years, giving rise to an extensive literature on the subject. Techniques for monitoring include local anaesthesia with the ABSTRACT: Objective: To prospectively compare somatosensory evoked potentials, electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) for detection of cerebral ischemia during carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Methods: Somatosensory evoked potentials and EEG recordings were attempted in 156 consecutive CEAs and TCD was also attempted in 91 of them. Recordings from all three modalities were obtained for at least 10 minutes before CEA, during CEAand for at least 15 minutes after CEA. Somatosensory evoked potentials peak-to-peak amplitude decrease of >50%, EEG amplitude decrease of >75%, and ipsilateral middle cerebral artery mean blood flow velocity (mean V MCAi ) decrease >75% persisting for the entire period of internal carotid artery occlusion were individually considered to be diagnostic of cerebral ischemia. Clinical neurological examination was performed immediately prior to surgery and following recovery from general anaesthesia. Results: Somatosensory evoked potentials, EEG, and TCD were successfully obtained throughout the entire period of internal carotid artery occlusion in 99%, 95%, and 63% of patients respectively. Two patients (1.3%) suffered intraoperative cerebral infarction detected by clinical neurological examination and subsequent magnetic resonance imaging. Somatosensory evoked potentials accurately predicted intraoperative cerebral infarction in both instances without false negatives or false positives, EEG yielded one false negative result and no false positive results and V MCAi one true positive, four false positive and no false negative results. Transcranial Doppler ultrasound detection of emboli did not correlate with postoperative neurological deficits. Nevertheless the sensitivity and specificity of each test was not significantly different than the others because of the small number of disagreements between tests. Conclusion: A >50% decrease in the cortically generated P25 amplitude of the median somatosensory evoked potentials, which persisted during the entire period of internal carotid artery occlusion, appears to be the most reliable method of monitoring for intraoperative ischemia in our hands because it accurately detected both intraoperative strokes with no false positive or false negative results. On a considéré qu'il existait de l'ischémie cérébrale si l'amplitude de pic à pic des potentiels évoqués somesthésiques était diminuée de plus de 50%, l'amplitude ÉEG était diminuée de plus de 75% ou la vélocité moyenne du flot sanguin de l'artère cérébrale moyenne ipsilatérale (VACMi) était diminuée de plus de 75% pendant toute la durée de l'occlusion de la carotide interne. Un examen neurologique a été fait immédiatement...