Reply

Thank you, Drs Fisher, Benson, and Imray, for your interest in our article and for highlighting some of the evidence to support the use of general anesthesia for its neuroprotective effects, which are derived from the uncoupling of cerebral metabolism and blood flow. Although general anesthesia likely provides some neuroprotective effect (so-called luxury perfusion), we found that it does not significantly lower the rate of clinically significant strokes in our study, as evidenced by the equivalent rate of stroke between patients who had local anesthesia and those who were routinely shunted under general anesthesia.
Source: Journal of Vascular Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Letter to the editor Source Type: research