First Results of a New Electromechanical Controlled External Ventricular Drainage in a Porcine Model

Abstract

Acute increase of intracranial pressure (ICP) usually has to be treated with an external ventricular drainage (EVD). Current standard mechanical EVD carry a lot of disadvantages, which hypothetically could be bet- ter managed by a newly developed electromechanical EVD. In this report our first preliminary results of such an elec- tromechanical EVD applied in a porcine animal model are presented. The drainage was demonstrated to be both suc- cessful in monitoring and controlling elevated ICP, and able to detect slit ventricles due to overdrainage, if the indented target ICP was set too low.