LAUSR

Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients are monitored with continuous arterial blood pressure (ABP) and intracranial pressure (ICP). The pressure reactivity index (PRx) is a frequently used correlation coefficient between ABP and ICP to inform clinicians at the bedside about trends in global cerebrovascular pressure regulation status. We present an unexpected influence of cyclic anti-decubitus mattress inflations and deflations on invasive ICP, ABP and PRx calculations in our TBI patients. This might affect autoregulation guided management. In our database, 23% (9/39) of the patients show recurrent peaks in the monitoring signals. We hypothesize that these peaks are caused by (a combination) of hydrostatic change, local (cervical) compression and/or incorrect sensor zeroing due to positional changes induced by the anti-decubitus mattress. This warrants further investigation by the manufacturer and exploration of data filters.