Is intracranial pressure waveform analysis useful in the management of pediatric neurosurgical patients?
GROUND: We have reported casuistic observations that intracranial pressure (ICP) waveform analysis may be useful in the management of pediatric patients. METHOD: We here report our whole patient material of 65 children undergoing ICP monitoring with storage of their ICP raw data files during the years 2002-2005. We retrospectively explored the clinical symptoms/findings and radiological cerebral ventricular size before ICP monitoring. Mean ICP was the actively treated ICP parameter. Using an algorithm for identification of cardiac-beat-induced pressure waves we retrospectively determined the mean ICP wave amplitude and latency, in addition to mean ICP. Outcome with regard to change in symptoms/findings during a 1-year period was determined in 55 children. RESULTS: The material includes children with hydrocephalus, craniosynostosis, shunt failure, benign intracranial hypertension and others. The ICP recordings gave wrong diagnostic information due to bad signal quality in 5 of 65 patien
