A near-infrared spectrophotometric system (e.g., a cerebral oximeter) includes a sensor portion and a monitor portion. The monitor portion includes a processor that runs an algorithm which utilizes the amount of detected light to determine the value of the oxygen concentration (e.g., the absolute level of oxygen concentration). The monitor portion also includes a visual display that displays the determined oxygen concentration values in various formats. The monitor portion may also include an audible device (e.g., a speaker), that provides audible indications of the determined oxygen concentration values. Various visual indicators may include, for example, color-coded graphs of the determined oxygenation values to alert the system user, for example, whether one hemisphere of the brain, or one or more regions of the brain, is in danger of adverse and potentially permanent damage. Also, data may be pre-processed by selecting the most clinically concerning sensor value (e.g., the sensor with the lowest value), and displaying only that sensor value and its identification on the display screen. Alternatively, an average value of multiple sensor measurements may be displayed. This reduces screen clutter and increases the speed of interpretation by the system user. Also, all sensor values may be averaged, and the average value displayed. The determined oxygenation values may also be provided in an audible format.
