Multimodal monitoring and assessment of cerebral haemodynamic reserve after severe head injury

This article contains an overview of selected clinical techniques employed for neurointensive care monitoring and testing of cerebral autoregulation of patients following severe head injury. Multiple modalities are used for monitoring of cerebral haemodynamic reserve, including intracranial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), blood flow velocity (FV) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA), jugular bulb oxygen saturation, laser-Doppler cortical flowmetry, near infrared spectroscopy of cerebral cortex, tissue oxygenation, and microdialysis. Large volumes of information demand specialised computer support for sensible interpretation and filtration of artifacts. Methods of testing of cerebral autoregulatory reserve based on transcranial Doppler ultrasonography are reviewed. Repetitive or continuous assessment is important in practice as autoregulatory reserve may fluctuate in time. Static and dynamic rates of autoregulation show sensitivity to carbon dioxide-induced vasodilatation, but fail to correlate with outcome following head injury. The carotid artery compression test, useful for assessment of patients after subarachnoid haemorrhage, has yet to prove its usefulness in head injury. Continuous waveform analysis of MCA FV and CPP correlates with coma score after resuscitation and outcome and hence may be considered as a robust method for the assessment of autoregulation in ventilated head trauma patients.