Intraventricular Pressure after Severe Brain Injuries: Prognostic Value and Correlation with Blood Pressure and Jugular Venous Oxygen Tension

Abstract

We have previously drawn attention to the close correlation between intraventricular pressure (IVP) and the fate of a patient with a severe brain injury [1, 2] (see also Table 1), and to the correlation between respiratory function Table 1 Pressure level Intraventricular pressure correlated with the fate of the patients, January 1st, 1967 to June 30th, 1972 Recovered Vegetative survival Dead Total Below 15 mmHg 11 4 1 16 15–30 mmHg 14 7 2 23 31–60 mmHg 5 7 5 14 Above 60 mmHg 2 1 18 21 32 16 26 74 and the fate of the patient [2, 3], An experimental study [4, 5] showed that after a severe brain injury in rabbits the ratio of cerebral sinus pressure (CSP) to blood pressure (BP) correlated well with other important parameters; the same study also showed that sudden swings in cerebral venous oxygen tension indicated a worse prognosis. As there are still many patients with brain injuries for whom it is impossible to make an accurate prognosis at present, and as rabbits are not humans, we investigated the same parameters as in the experimental study [4, 5] in patients, assuming that cerebral sinus pressure and intraventricular pressure are identical in the rabbit [6].