• Guillermo Burillo-Putze, Ignacio Herranz, Vicente Pérez, Faustino Redondo, Francisco Fernández, Alejandro Jiménez-Sosa, and Jesús Alvarez.
• Hospital Universitario de Canarias, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. gburillop@medynet.com
• Air Med. J. 2002 Jan 1; 21 (1): 13-6.

IntroductionTranscranial oximetry (TCO) is a new method to measure continuous changes in brain blood oxygen saturation (rSO2) by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). To our knowledge, no studies about TCO in air medical transport have been published.MethodsTwenty healthy volunteers (HEMS medical crew) were investigated during flight missions without patients. We measured oxygen saturation (SpO2), cardiac rate, and rSO2 with an INVOS 4100 Cerebral Oximeter at sea level and at each 1000 feet until we reached a flight level of 5000 feet.ResultsThe oximeter did not produce any interference with medical or aeronautical equipment. Subjects' SpO2 showed a slight decrease with altitude (P < 0.010), but rSO2 remained constant (P = 0.28), with little delay in the physiological correction of SpO2 and rSO2 values.ConclusionTCO may play an important role in the development of new monitoring methods for critical patients in air medical transport. Further studies with large sample sizes and patients are necessary to generalize findings.

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