AANA Journal course: update for nurse anesthetists--monitoring the brain for hypoxic events.

Monitoring of brain oxygen content is highly desirable as this organ is highly intolerant to hypoxia from a variety of possible etiologies, many of which can occur during the administration of anesthesia. Most of the modalities directed at brain oxygen monitoring are highly technical and currently are in various stages of evolution worldwide. These approaches include those which access brain oxygen content by both direct and indirect means. This lesson reviews the major areas of research currently underway and suggests that we should be optimistic that this technology may be available to us clinically in the foreseeable future.