[Systems of cerebral monitoring and protection in extracranial carotid surgery].

The main methods for cerebral monitoring and protection during surgical operations of extracranial carotid are examined, analyzing for everyone advantages and limits. Particularly, the authors discuss benefits and disadvantages of cerebral monitoring using somato-sensorial evoked potentials (EP) associated with the measurement of the stump pressure in patients in which general anaesthesia was performed, comparing this method to the monitoring of patients operated using locoregional anaesthesia. The results obtained allow us to say that EP are a very good method for cerebral monitoring and that, if they are not pathological, also with stump pressure values lower than 40 mmHg, a shunt is not necessary.