Xiuyun Liu
UCSF, California
Biography:
Abstract:
External ventricular drains (EVD) are widely used to monitor and manage intracranial pressure (ICP). However, the conventional EVD setup cannot monitor ICP when EVD is open for draining cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In contrast, newly available Camino FLEX ventricular catheter has a double-lumen construct to allow tunneling of ICP sensor through one lumen and CSF drain through another so that ICP monitoring and CSF draining can be achieved simultaneously. A pilot trial of FLEX catheter was conducted to evaluate this new system with a primary goal of ensuring the validity of recorded ICP. In addition, FLEX catheter uniquely enables us, without using additional ICP sensors, to study cerebral vascular responses to acute reduction of ICP and increase of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) induced by acute CSF drainage.