The Problem of Non-Invasive Monitoring in Neurological Emergencies

Abstract

Raised intracranial pressure is the final common pathway for many intracranial problems. ICP monitoring is the most widely used intracranial monitor because prevention and control of increased ICP and maintenance of cerebral perfusion pressure are fundamental therapeutic goals after TBI. According to the disadvantages of invasive ICP monitoring methods it would be very helpful to measure ICP, and to have a continuous monitoring of brain compliance and cerebrovascular autoregulation without invasive catheters. Only prof. dr. A. Ragauskas patented methods can measure absolute value of ICP with no necessary calibration. The essential point of all other methods is correlation or functional dependence between any parameter of the head and ICP. To express the results of such measurements in pressure units the calibration procedure is needed, i.e. the non-invasive ICP meter with benchmark accuracy is needed. But the main problem is that there is no such meter. Ill. 2, bibl. 9 (in English; abstracts in English, Russian and Lithuanian).