Relationship between hyperventilation and intracranial pressure in patients with severe head injury

With high fatality rate and disability rate, the pathophysiologic changes of severe head injury are complicated. But the method of lowering intracranial pressure (ICP) through artificial hyperventilation is called in question recently. To understand the related changes of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in artery (PaCO(2)) and the ICP at the acute period of severe head injury, a total of 64 patients with severe head injury were monitored and analyzed on the 3rd day after injury.