ABSTRACT
Disturbances of consciousness are the most common abnormalities observed in acute carbon monoxide poisoning. Psychophysiological experimentation reveals that perceptual deficits can occur when blood carboxyhemoglobin reaches a level of only 5% to 9% saturation. In the early 1960s, A. David suggested that children who had been exposed to lead may develop an attention deficit disorder. As a rule, clinical studies are limited to the demonstration that the sometimes subtle changes in the level of consciousness occur as a result of low levels of exposure to neurotoxic agents. Neuropsychologists are relying increasingly on the use of traditional and well-known tests originally developed for the assessment of brain damage to study these questions. Vigilance is the ability to detect meaningful signals during relatively long periods of time. Anesthesiologists and personnel who work in the surgical theater have long been suspected of being especially vulnerable to anesthetic gases during the course of surgical interventions.
