Sustained erroneous near-infrared cerebral oxygen saturation in alert icteric patient with vanishing bile duct syndrome during and after liver transplantation: A case report

Monitoring cerebral oxygenation using a near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) device is useful for estimating cerebral hypoperfusion and is available during liver transplantation (LT). However, high serum bilirubin concentration can interfere with NIRS because bilirubin absorbs near infrared light. We report a patient who underwent LT with a diagnosis of vanishing bile duct syndrome, whose regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO₂) remained below 15% even with alert mental status and SpO2₂ value of 99%. The rSO₂ values were almost fixed at the lowest measurable level throughout the intra- and postoperative period. We report a case of erroneously low rSO₂ values during the perioperative period in a liver transplant recipient which might be attributable to skin pigmentation rather than higher serum bilirubin concentration.

Comparing the effects of vecuronium and cisatracurium on electrophysiologic monitoring during neurosurgery: a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND: The differences between neuromuscular blocking (NMB) drugs on the efficacy of intraoperative motor-evoked potential (MEP) monitoring have not been established through clinical study. We compared the effects of vecuronium and cisatracurium on the efficacy of intraoperative MEP monitoring. METHODS: We enrolled 72 patients who had undergone neurosurgery with MEP monitoring. We randomly allocated the subjects into one of two groups, in whom we maintained continuous intravenous vecuronium (Group V) or cisatracurium (Group C) infusion during the surgeries; the target partial NMB for maintenance was T1/Tc 50% (T1, first twitch of TOF response; Tc, control response of T1 before NMB drug injection). We compared the means and coefficients of variation (CV, %) of all measured MEP amplitudes and the frequencies of NMB drug dose changes. RESULTS: The means and CVs of MEP amplitude and latency in all four limbs did not differ significantly between the groups, although we did change the continuous NMB drug doses in group V significantly less often than in group C. CONCLUSIONS: There were no significant differences between vecuronium and cisatracurium on the MEP variability and mean amplitudes. However, cisatracurium needed more frequent dose changes to maintain T1/Tc 50%.