Neuromonitoring in traumatic brain injury

Current approaches to monitoring in severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) include a wide array of modalities, providing insight into pressure parameters, oxygenation, perfusion, electrophysiology and metabolism of the brain. The intent of "multimodality monitoring" is to obtain a better understanding of what is going on within the brain of an individual patient in order to target treatment more appropriately,. In this review we highlight the current status of neuromonitoring for TBI with a specific focus on how advanced analysis and integration of these parameters may be used to implement more personalized treatment approaches. In particular, combining information from different parameters and performing dynamic testing offers the potential to better understand the pathophysiological mechanisms active in the brain of a particular patient. Rather than persisting in a standardized "one size fits all" approach to therapy or continuing down the separate tracts of goal directed therapy, we suggest to think more in terms of "individualized therapeutic strategies" more focused on the specific requirements of each patient. Given the considerable data overload in multimodality monitoring and the complexity in interpretation of signals from multiple sources, specific attention needs to be directed to data processing and user-friendly displays. Intense collaboration and interaction between clinicians, basic researchers, IT-experts, nurses and industry will be required to further advance the fields towards more personalized approaches. (Minerva Anestesiol 2012;78:949-58)