CEREBO^®: A Portable Device for Non-invasive Detection of Intracranial Hematomas in Real Time

Brain injury has become a silent epidemic and has very low survival and recovery rates because of inaccurate triaging, especially in absence of symptoms. Therefore, a clinical assessment tool for quick onsite detection of intracranial hematoma is necessary.

This study aims to assess the efficacy of the near infrared-based device CEREBO^® for the non-invasive detection of intracranial hematomas in traumatic head injury patients.

Observational, prospective, cohort, single-center study.

Forty-four patients recruited from the Department of Neurosurgery of Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad, between 3 and 85 years from June 2018 to March 2020 were examined by CEREBO^® and computed tomography (CT) scan within 72 h post-injury or first onset of symptoms to measure the desired parameters.

SAS 9.4.

The device exhibited high sensitivity (94.87%) and specificity (76.19%) for unilateral hematomas with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 93.67% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 80%. For bilateral hematomas, the device exhibited a sensitivity of 80%, specificity of 77.78%, PPV 83.33%, and NPV 73.68%.

This study establishes the efficacy of CEREBO^® to be used as a point-of-care medical screening device for detecting brain hematomas in patients who have had a head injury and is therefore recommended as an adjunct to CT scan. In the triaging or diagnosis phase, it allows for early treatment and thus helps to reduce the secondary injury resulting from the existing and delayed hematomas.