Near-infrared spectroscopy

Ventilation, medication delivery, movement, electrical interference, and the emergency itself can contaminate neurological recordings.

Nevertheless, AWARE 2 incorporated a portable frontotemporal EEG system and near-infrared spectroscopy, or NIRS, which estimates regional cerebral oxygen saturation by shining near-infrared light through tissue and analyzing how oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin absorb it.

The investigators were therefore trying to watch two things at once, how much oxygenated blood appeared to be reaching the brain, and what patterns of electrical activity the cortex was producing while CPR was mechanically generating circulation.

Of those 567 cardiac arrests, 213 patients achieved sustained return of spontaneous circulation, meaning the heart recovered enough effective pumping activity that continuous chest compressions were no longer required.

And I looked at mesenteric perfusion and oxygenation surrounding packed red blood cell transfusion.

And so I was one of the, I think I was the first to capture transfusion-related neck using NIRS.

And I got in on four babies and we published that study.

What we found was I had no idea we were going to find it, but I included babies that were fed and babies that weren't fed.

And there's one more.

And I knew I was going to forget names because I'm old.

And they have shown, and my studies have shown, too, that monitoring the kidney with NIRS will show that drop 24 to 48 hours before the serum creatinine ever aligns.

And so that should tell you I got a problem.

Transcutaneous oxygen studies.

There's a newer things that's coming out called NIRS, and there's some literature on that also, infrared spectroscopy.

Okay.

If you could eliminate one barrier to limb salvage tomorrow, what would it be?