Objective:
Trauma patient requires a complex therapeutic management because of multiple severe injuries or secondary complications. The most significant injury found in patients with trauma is head injury, which has the greatest impact on mortality. Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is required in severe traumatic head injury because it optimises treatment based on ICP values and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP).
Methods:
From a total of 64 patients admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) ‘Casa Austria’, from the Polytraumatology Clinic of the Emergency County Hospital “Pius Brinzeu” Timisoara, Romania, between January 2014 and December 2014; only patients who underwent ICP monitoring (n=10) were analysed. The study population was divided into several categories depending on the time passed since trauma to the time of installation of ICP monitoring (<18 h, 19–24 h and >24 h). Comparisons were made in terms of the number of days admitted in the ICU and mortality between patients with head injury who benefited and those who did not benefit from ICP monitoring.
Results:
The results show the positive influence of ICP monitoring on the number of admission days in ICU because of the possibility that the number of admission days to augment therapeutic effects in patients who benefited from ICP monitoring reduces by 1.93 days compared with those who did not undergo ICP monitoring.
Conclusion:
ICP monitoring and optimizing therapy according to the ICP and CPP has significant influence on the rate of survival. ICP monitoring is necessary in all patients with head trauma injury according to recent guidelines. The main therapeutic goal in the management of the trauma patient with head injury is to minimize the destructive effects of the associated side effects.
Keywords: Intracranial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure, cerebral blood flow, head injury, traumatic brain injury, multiple trauma patients