Introduction Craniosynostosis is characterised by the premature fusion of cranial sutures. This can be associated with raised intracranial pressure (ICP), which can lead to developmental delay, visual impairment and death. Treatment involves surgical expansion of the skull vault. There is no consensus over who to treat and when. Intracranial pressure is difficult to estimate in a child and existing methods possess sub-optimal diagnostic accuracy to be employed as screening tools. Here, we propose a systematic review protocol to examine the role of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in early detection of raised ICP in craniosynostosis. Methods Electronic searches in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE and Embase will identify studies featuring OCT in detecting raised ICP in children with craniosynostosis. Two independent researchers will identify studies for inclusion using a screening questionnaire. Quality will be assessed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. The primary outcome measure is the sensitivity and specificity of OCT in detecting raised ICP in children with craniosynostosis. Secondary outcomes measures include the sensitivity and specificity of other surrogate measures for raised ICP, OCT parameters used and normal ranges for ICP reported. A formal narrative synthesis with descriptive statistics will be presented. Discussion The proposed study will be the first to examine the role of optical coherence tomography in the early recognition of raised intracranial pressure in craniosynostosis, thereby addressing an important clinical problem in paediatric ophthalmology and craniofacial surgery. This systematic review protocol provides transparency to the proposed methods and reduces the possibility of duplication. The proposed methods reflect those prescribed by the Cochrane Collaboration. Systematic review registration International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) number CRD42019147693
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.