Duration of the Monitoring of Intracranial Pressure Concerning the Presence of Intracranial Hypertension

Abstract

Duration of intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring depends on the clinician`s necessity for the data that influence type and length of the management of intracranial hypertension (ICHT). On the other hand, it is also affected by the possibility of the development of the infection, which is very often fatal when it occurrs in the central nervous system. A prospective study of the 32 patients with severe brain trauma (SBT) that had intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is presented in here. There were 22 patients with intracranial hypertension (ICHT) and 10 without it. In the ICHT group, the monitoring lasted 5.81 ± 2.70 and 4.45 ± 1.81 in the control group. We have not found a significant difference in the duration of the ICP monitoring between two groups (t = 1.71, p > 0.05). Patients with ICHT had significantly shorter survival than the control group (p = 0.04). It seems that need for prolonged monitoring of the patients with ICHT is suppressed by their shorter survival, comparing to brain-injured patients with normal intracranial pressure.