Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 18, 2026

A Bedside, Single Burr Hole Approach to Multimodality Monitoring in Severe Brain Injury
Published on: March 26, 2019
Blood pressure in head-injured patients
Patrick Mitchell1, Barbara A Gregson, Ian Piper
1Department of Neurosurgery, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Objective:
To determine the statistical characteristics of blood pressure (BP) readings from a large number of head-injured patients.
Methods:
The BrainIT group has collected high time-resolution physiological and clinical data from head-injured patients who require intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring. The statistical features of this dataset of BP measurements with time resolution of 1 min from 200 patients is examined. The distributions of BP measurements and their relationship with simultaneous ICP measurements are described.
Results:
The distributions of mean, systolic and diastolic readings are close to normal with modest skewing towards higher values. There is a trend towards an increase in blood pressure with advancing age, but this is not significant. Simultaneous blood pressure and ICP values suggest a triphasic relationship with a BP rising at 0.28 mm Hg/mm Hg of ICP, for ICP up to 32 mm Hg, and 0.9 mm Hg/mm Hg of ICP for ICP from 33 to 55 mm Hg, and falling sharply with rising ICP for ICP >55 mm Hg.
Conclusions:
Patients with head injury appear to have a near normal distribution of blood pressure readings that are skewed towards higher values. The relationship between BP and ICP may be triphasic.
Related Concept Videos
Increased Intracranial Pressure l: Introduction
Increased Intracranial Pressure ll: Pathophysiology
Special considerations while measuring blood pressure
Monitoring Both Arms:
Monitoring BP in both arms during the initial assessment is advisable, as the systolic value may differ by five to ten mm Hg between arms. For subsequent BP assessments, use the arm with the higher reading.
Cerebral Edema ll: Pathophysiology
Hemorrhagic Stroke ll: Pathophysiology
Traumatic Brain Injury l: Introduction

