Near-Infrared Spectroscopy as a diagnostic tool in patients with suspected stroke or traumatic brain injury

Abstract

The factor time for identifying intracranial bleeding is very important, especially superficial hematoma can be asymptomatic in the beginning, but needs rapid intervention before structural or functional brain defects occur Superficial bleeding can be located between the dura mater, a hard skin tissue and the brain (subdural hematoma) between the dura mater and the skull (epidural hematoma). Superficial intracranial hematoma causes compression and displacement of the healthy brain structure. In these cases the pressure needs to be released by draining t e blood through a drill hole in the skull. In case of an accident or stroke m a prehospital setting, minimal diagnostic equipment is available. In addition to the clinical symptoms NIRS can corroborate the suspection of superficial intracranial bleeding. It may be helpful for the rescue-team to guide the decision either to take the patient to the next local hospital or accept the longer distance to a medical center, offering a cranial computensed tomography (CCT)-scan or even neurosurgery.