Brain metabolism in deep controlled hypotension in neurosurgical patients

Changes in the lactate and pyruvate levels and lactic dehydrogenase activity in the cerebrospinal fluid were followed in 56 patients anaesthetised for neurosurgery. Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) was reduced in these patients from about 90 to about 35 mm Hg. This allowed to safely place a clip at a brain artery aneurysm. In spite of deep hypotension, ischaemia described by other authors in such cases was never observed. Changes in lactate and pyruvate concentrations, lactate/pyruvate ratio and lactic dehydrogenase activity justify the conclusion that we were dealing with an undisturbed metabolism of the brain tissue. The levels of metabolic parameters, even when increased in hypotension, fell well within the range of physiological values. Attention is called to the fact that partial oxygen pressure in arterial blood during controlled hypotension was about 100 mm Hg, a value considered as limiting to oxygen metabolic transformation within the central nervous system in deep hypotension. We also suggest a different mechanism of passage of lactates and pyruvates through the blood-brain barrier.