[Intracranial pressure monitoring as a complementary tests for diagnosing brain death. Preliminary observation...

The clinical evolution of two patients with continuous intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring, admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Neurology, University Hospital of Botucatu, and followed until irreversible cardiac failure (ICF) was studied retrospectively. The evolution of ICP showed that it reached a maximum 5 to 12 hours before a decrease in wave amplitude occurred (this was observed approximately 47 to 60 hours before ICF). The tracing became linear approximately 30 hours before ICF in both cases. The clinical diagnosis of brain death (BD) was obtained 3 to 28 hours after the tracing had become linear. The authors suggest that, in absence of sedation, the diagnosis of BD may be made early with the use of ICP monitoring even before the clinical diagnosis, and emphasize the need for more observations in a larger number of patients.