[Spontaneous respiration during neurosurgical operations. I. Patients with brain stem pathology]

Spontaneous respiration (SR) was used for dynamic control of brain stem functions in 21 patients during excision of intramedullary tumours and brain stem hematomas. SR disturbances developed during tumour removal from caudal stem sections in 4 patients, in 2 of them the course of the postoperative period was severe. It seems expedient to include into the programme of intraoperation monitoring of patients operated on the brain stem the SR parameters for dynamic assessment of brain stem function.