Cerebral Physiologic Effects of Burst Suppression Doses of Propofol During Nonpulsatile Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Abstract
Central nervous system (CNS) complications are common after cardiac surgery.Death due to cardiac causes has decreased, but the number of deaths due to CNS injury has increased. As a first stage in the evaluation of its cerebral protection potential, we evaluated the cerebral physiologic effects of burst suppression doses of propofol during nonpulsatile cardiopulmonary bypass. Thirty patients without history of cerebral vascular disease were randomized to two study groups: control group (n = 15) who received sufentanil and vecuronium, or propofol group (n = 15) who received the control anesthetic and propofol infused to maintain electroencephalogram (EEG) burst suppression. Catheters were placed in the radial artery and right jugular bulb for sampling of systemic arterial and jugular bulb venous blood.133 Xe clearance was used to determine cerebral blood flow (CBF) at the start of normothermic bypass, during stable hypothermia, and when rewarmed to 35-37 degrees C nasopharyngeal temperature. Pharmacologic burst suppression with propofol produced a statistically significant reduction in CBF, cerebral oxygen delivery (DO2), and cerebral metabolic rate (CMRO2) at each measurement interval (P (Anesth Analg 1995;81:452-7)