Monitoring brain oxygenation in head-injury patients

Over the last few decades, many methods have been developed to try to monitor the oxygenation status of the brain tissue. These methods have been the subject of a large body of research attempting to understand and interpret the measurements, thus producing clinically useful indicators to guide clinical interventions with the ultimate aim of improving patient outcome. Many techniques have remained in the research domain or have simply been abandoned, but some have generated substantial interest and have been developed into commercially available products in widespread use around the world. This review gives an overview of the management of head-injury patients and discusses the most widely used modalities for monitoring cerebral oxygenation and other variables such as intracranial pressure and cerebral blood flow.