Laser Doppler monitoring of cerebral blood flow

The clinical management of cerebral hemodynamic status has become more important, as well as more complex, in recent years. In response, monitoring systems for neurological patients have grown increasingly sophisticated. Unfortunately, the capability of monitoring cerebral blood flow is absent in commercially available monitoring systems at this time. Various investigators have demonstrated that laser Doppler systems are capable of meeting this need. We present here a summary of laser Doppler technology, and also a review of the progress in application of this technology to provide meaningful input for clinical decision making. Recent clinical experience and advances in instrumentation design suggest that laser Doppler monitoring of cerebral blood flow may soon become routine in neurological intensive care settings.