Treatment of Post-Traumatic Brain Edema

  • A. Larsson
  • B. Asgeirsson
  • P. O. Grände
Part of the Yearbook of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine book series (YEARBOOK, volume 1995)

Abstract

Brain edema with raised intracranial pressure (ICP) often constitutes a serious complication of traumatic head injury and may be fatal. High ICP may compromise perfusion to the brain and cause tentorial herniation and brain stem compression, the latter in fact being the most important cause of death in this category of patients. The overall mortality/morbidity for deeply comatose patients with severe head injuries and raised ICP is high and is often reported to exceed 50% [1–4]. High ICP and low cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) are prognostic factors discussed as correlating to poor outcome [1–3, 5]. Impaired vasoreactivity to hyperventilation in combination with raised ICP is the factor shown to correlate best to poor outcome with a mortality/vegetativity/severe disability rate of close to 100% [6].

Keywords

Cerebral Perfusion Pressure Severe Head Injury Colloid Osmotic Pressure Tissue Pressure Albumin Infusion 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1995

Authors and Affiliations

  • A. Larsson
  • B. Asgeirsson
  • P. O. Grände

There are no affiliations available

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