Abstract
Oxygen is essential to our survival. Nevertheless, as clinicians, we still struggle to assess the adequacy of oxygen delivery to key organ beds. 1 Finch C.A. Lenfant C. Oxygen transport in man. N Engl J Med. 1972; 286 : 407-415 Crossref PubMed Scopus (218) Google Scholar The state of organ perfusion could ideally be assessed by a monitor of tissue oxygenation. An important contribution to the search for such a monitoring method is near-infrared spectroscopy, which can assess tissue oxygen sufficiency. This review will discuss the current state of our knowledge about near-infrared spectroscopy and its potential place in the surgical arena.