CT Scan Predictors of Intracranial Hypertension After Head Injury

Abstract

The need exists for objective criteria for the use of intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring in head injured patients [2]. The initial CT scan taken soon after the arrival of the head injured patient to the hospital can provide important information as to whether ICP monitoring is needed. A normal CT scan has been associated with low incidence of intracranial hypertension in head injured patients [1, 3, 4, 5]. An abnormal admission CT scan was found by Narayan et al. to be correlated with an increased incidence of intracranial hypertension in head-injured patients: 53% of patients with hypodense lesions and 63% of patients with hyperdense lesions had elevated ICP [4]. Other CT scan features as midline shift and perimesencephalic cistern compression, have also been found to be associated with elevated ICP [6, 7]. Our goal in this study was to identify within the group of head-injured patients with abnormal admission CT scans subgroups of patients with elevated ICP.