Intracranial pressure monitoring and assessing intracranial compliance in brain injury

Caring for the patient with a brain injury is a dynamic process with the goal of providing therapy to prevent secondary injury. Until practitioners have a better understanding of the pathophysiology of ischemia and the response of therapies for treating increased ICP, they must use the tools that exist. ICP monitoring gives a rough index of the relationships and the response of the intracranial contents to changes in volume that may produce increases in pressure and further damage. Understanding the information supplied by ICP monitoring is imperative to successful management of increased ICP.