Clinical neurophysiological assessment of sepsis-associated brain dysfunction: a systematic review

Table 4 Abnormalities in evoked potentials in patients with sepsis

	Ref	Type of evoked potential	Alterations in the evoked potential	Rate (%) or findings	Other findings
Case–control study (patients with systemic infection versus controls)
	16	VEP	VEP N1-P1	no difference
Case series of patients with sepsis
	17	SSEP, including long-latency responses	N9, N20 and N70 peak latency; N13–N20 and N20–N70 peak-peak latency	Prolonged in 57%, 47%, 94%, 34% and 84% of patients, respectively	SSEP peak latencies correlated with the APACHE III score and were the same in sedated and non-sedated patients.
	22	AEP	I-V interwave latency	Prolonged in 4/6 (67%)
Case series or case–control study that included patients with and without sepsis
	29	AEP	15% decrease of the AAI	80% in sepsis patients	The median AAI of patients with SAE, 58 (range of 40 to 70) whereas it in ones without, 70 (55 to 90).
	25	SSEP, including long-latency responses	N9, N20 and N70 peak latency; N13–N20 and N20–N70 peak-peak latency	Prolonged in patients with sepsis compared to controls	The delay of N70 peak latencies correlated with the APACHE III score. Peak latencies were not different in sedated and non-sedated patients.

AAI, A-line Autoregression Index; ABSR, auditory brain stem response; AEP, auditory evoked potentials; APACHE, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation; EEG, electroencephalogram; NA, not applicable; SAE, sepsis-associated encephalopathy; SSEP, somatosensory evoked potentials; VEP, visually evoked potentials.

ISSN: 1364-8535