Browsing by Author "Lindholm, Emilia"

Objective: Survivors of critical illness often experience a prolonged cognitive impairment, but the etiology remains unclear. According to previous research poor cerebral oxygenation might contribute to cognitive impairment after critical illness. However, this has not been examined before. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between cerebral oxygenation during critical illness and cognition after critical illness. Also, the age of the patient was examined as a risk factor. Methods: The subjects were eight (8) circulatory shock patients between the ages of 25 to 74. 50 % of the patients were men and 50 % women. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to measure cerebral oxygenation during critical care and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment -test to measure cognition at the time of transfer to a regular ward. Linear regression was used to analyze the relationship between cerebral oxygenation and cognition. Both independent relationship and relationship when the effect of age and gender was controlled was examined. Results and Conclusions: Cerebral oxygenation during critical illness was associated with cognition after critical illness so that when the cerebral oxygenation levels were lower, the cognition was more likely to be impaired. With this sample the association was not statistically significant and there was no association when the effect of age and gender was controlled. The elderly patients had both lower cerebral oxygenation levels and more impaired cognition after critical illness. More research is needed with a bigger sample size and with the effect of age controlled.