Intracranial Volume/Pressure Relationships during Continuous Monitoring of Ventricular Fluid Pressure

To explain the widely varying and fluctuating levels of intracranial pressure (ICP) which may be encountered in neurosurgical patients [1, 2, 3] and the differing responses of ICP in such patients to the administration of anaesthetic agents [4] the concept of a non-linear, exponential relationship between addition to the volume of the intracranial contents and ICP has been invoked. It is implicit in this type of volume/pressure relationship that as resting ICP increases, so also should the change in ICP produced by a uniform change in intracranial volume.