ACCURACY OF CONTINUOUS JUGULAR BULB VENOUS OXIMETRY DURING INTRACRANIAL SURGERY

We compared readings obtained from the Baxter-Edwards continuous jugul ar bulb venous oximetry catheter with those obtained from blood gas an alysis of simultaneously drawn samples from the catheter in 12 patient s undergoing neurosurgical procedures. Within the range studied (SjvO( 2), 42-95%), the 111 (median, nine samples per patient; range five to 17) oximetric catheter readings correlated well with hemoglobin oxygen saturation values obtained from in vitro analysis of simultaneously d rawn blood samples from the catheter (y = 0.93x + 3.4, r = 0.94, p < 0 .001). Fiberoptic light signal was suboptimal (signal quality index = 3 or 4) on fewer than five occasions per patient during an average sur gical procedure duration of seven h, and these occurrences were genera lly corrected by flushing the catheter. We conclude that the Baxter-Ed wards jugular bulb oximetric catheter provides an accurate measure of SjvO(2) during neurosurgical procedures.