[Brain monitoring with near infrared spectroscopy during carotid endarterectomy].

We evaluated clinical efficacy of near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) as a monitoring system for cerebral oxygenation during anesthesia for carotid artery endarterectomy. NIR proved to be affected significantly by clamping of the external carotid artery. The present study suggests that this monitoring system may be useful for evaluation of cerebral blood flow following declamping of the internal carotid artery, although it has some limitations during clamping of the artery.