Results from global “Synapse-ICU” study published in The Lancet Neurology

Last updated : 17/06/2021 - 5 views

Results from global “Synapse-ICU” study published in The Lancet Neurology

Haemorrhagic stroke and head injury, therapies guided by ICP monitoring improve outcomes in severe patients

 

Monitoring intracranial pressure in patients arriving in intensive care units with an acute brain injury may positively impact long-term outcomes. This conclusion emerges from a study coordinated by Giuseppe Citerio, Editor-in-Chief of the ESICM Intensive Care Medicine Journal and Professor at the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Milano-Bicocca.

The results of two years of work are summarised in the paper “Intracranial pressure monitoring in patients with acute brain injury in the intensive care unit (Synapse-ICU): an international, prospective observational cohort study“, published in the prestigious journal “The Lancet Neurology”.

The practice of continuously measuring intracranial pressure (commonly referred to as ICP) in comatose patients after haemorrhagic stroke or head injury is standard practice in many countries. However, it is uncertain whether monitoring-guided therapies will yield significant results. Nevertheless, data collected from the study confirms what already seemed evident from experience. Furthermore, it offers valuable scientific support for both those realities where monitoring had not been used and for those where this nonetheless invasive practice has already been used for years.

Hear from Prof Citerio how the study was designed and carried out, in the podcast below.