[A fatal intraoperative cerebral ischemia following kinking of the internal carotid artery?].

Postoperative neurological deficit may result from ischaemic or hypoxic hypoxaemia. Postural cerebral hypoperfusion may ensue when a pre-existing asymptomatic vascular anomaly in combination with rotation of the head for surgical positioning compromises cerebral blood flow. CASE REPORT. A 30-year-old man was referred for recraniotomy for glioblastoma. Following uneventful induction of anaesthesia, increased diuresis and progressive hypothermia were observed. The postoperative period was complicated by a seizure, followed by apnoea requiring reintubation of the trachea. A CAT scan revealed global cerebral oedema with subtotal compression of the third ventricle. Intracranial pressure was 60 mm Hg as measured by an epidural probe. On the 1st postoperative day clinical and electroneurophysical signs of brain death were observed; the patient underwent organ explantation the next day. PATHOLOGY. Pathological examination revealed pronounced global hypoxaemic lesions and an S-shaped internal carotid artery with intimal proliferation (Fig. 1). The diagnostic conclusion was cerebral ischaemia following carotid occlusion caused by carotid kinking and completed by surgical positioning (rotation of the head). CONCLUSION. Carotid kinking is a rare abnormality, and patients at risk may not be identified preoperatively. Though it is questionable whether this disaster could have been prevented at all, electroneurophysiological monitoring would have been the only early monitoring system capable of detecting diminishing cerebral blood flow. Although a request for routine intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring seems unrealistic at present, it has to be acknowledged that only such monitoring could have provided the information needed to save this patient.