Summary
In ten patients with severe brain injury, arterial blood pressure was recorded continuously by means of an arterial catheter, concomitantly with a recording of ventricular fluid pressure by means of a catheter in one lateral ventricle. The purpose of the study was to test whether there was a correlation between blood pressure and intracranial pressure. There was no consistent correlation. Intracranial pressure cannot be gauged from arterial blood pressure recordings, and it seems futile to monitor arterial blood pressure continuously in brain injured patients. Only when the brain was already dead or dying was there a reliable correlation between arterial blood pressure and ventricular fluid pressure.
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Troupp, H., Kuurne, T. & Valtonen, S. Lack of correlation between ventricular fluid pressure and arterial blood pressure in severe brain injuries. Acta neurochir 28, 193–199 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01432231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01432231