Assessment of intra-cranial pressure after severe traumatic brain injury by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography

Abstract

Primary objective: To investigate the potential of transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in estimating post-traumatic intra-cranial pressure early after severe traumatic brain injury.Research design: The group of 24 patients was analysed for the observation of an early post-traumatic cerebral haemodynamic by middle cerebral artery blood velocity measuring.Methods and procedures: The standard method of measuring the mean blood middle cerebral artery velocity by transcranial Doppler ultrasonic device was performed.Main outcomes and results: The increased duration of intra-cranial hypertension correlated to the middle cerebral artery low blood velocity (p = 0.042; r = −0.498) (n = 17) and to elevated pulsatility indices (p = 0.007; r = 0.753) (n = 11) significantly. The increased duration of lowered cerebral perfusion pressure correlated to the middle cerebral artery low blood velocity significantly (p = 0.001; r = −0.619) (n = 24).Conclusions: The significance of transcranial Doppler ultrasonography as a method to estimate an early post-traumatic intra-cranial pressure after severe brain injury was confirmed. This simple and non-invasive technique could be easily used in daily clinical practice and precede intra-cranial pressure monitoring in selected patients.