Is cerebral monitoring useful? Focus must shift from mere observation to testing interventions

Protecting the brain during anaesthesia is paramount. We rely on the assumption that cerebral blood flow and oxygenation are adequate if blood pressure, blood flow, haemoglobin concentration, inspired oxygen fraction and metabolic demand are within the usual ranges. Dr. Lassen defined the static cerebral autoregulation curve in 1959, Dr. Aaslid gave insight to the dynamic autoregulation by transcranial Doppler ((TCD); 1982) while Dr. Jöbsis described cerebral oximetry ((NIRS); 1977).