Defining the awake baseline blood pressure in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy.

Background: To minimize the incidence of intraoperative stroke following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) under general anesthesia, blood pressure (BP) is suggested to be maintained between "awake baseline" BP and 20% above. However, there is neither a widely accepted protocol nor a definition to determine this awake BP. In this study, we analyzed the BP during hospital admission in the days before CEA and propose a definition of how to determine awake BP.

Validation of non-invasive arterial pressure monitoring during carotid endarterectomy.

Background: Patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy require strict arterial blood pressure (BP) control to maintain adequate cerebral perfusion. In this study we tested whether non-invasive beat-to-beat Nexfin finger BP (BPfin) can replace invasive beat-to-beat radial artery BP (BPrad) in this setting.

Methods: In 25 consecutive patients (median age 71 yr) scheduled for carotid endarterectomy and receiving general anaesthesia, BPfin and BPrad were monitored simultaneously and ipsilaterally during the 30-min period surrounding carotid artery cross-clamping.