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Hypertonic Saline for the Treatment of Intracranial Hypertension

  • Neurotrauma (J Levine, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Intracranial hypertension is caused by brain edema generated by different disorders, the commonest of which is traumatic brain injury. The treatment of brain edema focuses on drawing water out of brain tissue into the intravascular space. This is typically accomplished with osmolar therapy, most commonly mannitol and hypertonic saline. Recent human trials suggest that hypertonic saline may have a more profound and long-lasting effect in reducing intracranial hypertension following traumatic brain injury when compared with mannitol. However, reports suffer from inconsistencies in dose, frequency, concentration, and route of administration. Side effect profile, potential complications, and contraindications to administration need to be factored in when considering which first-line osmotherapy to choose for a given patient with head injury.

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Conflict of Interest

Tareq Kheirbek and Jose L. Pascual declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care & Emergency Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Tareq Kheirbek & Jose L. Pascual

  2. The Trauma Center at Penn, 3400 Spruce Street, Maloney 5, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Jose L. Pascual

Authors
  1. Tareq Kheirbek
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  2. Jose L. Pascual
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Correspondence to Jose L. Pascual.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Neurotrauma

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Kheirbek, T., Pascual, J.L. Hypertonic Saline for the Treatment of Intracranial Hypertension. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 14, 482 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-014-0482-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-014-0482-4

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