A proposal method for the assessment of cerebrospinal fluid pressure in the cerebral ventricles

This work presents a possible method of overcoming difficulties arising during the recording of intracranial pressure (ICP) from the cerebral ventricles of patients suffering from head injuries or intracranial space occupying lesions. The main difficulties in obtaining these measurements are the risk of infection and measurement errors caused by artefacts from head movements. These two problems arise when a cannula inserted into the cerebral ventricle is connected outside the skull to an external transducer measuring pressure. We propose a method utilizing a modified flushing shunt connected to a strain gauge epidural transducer. The characteristic (voltage against pressure) of the device was tested in vitro. This calibration gave satisfactory results both in the linearity of the characteristic and in the performance of the device.