BACKGROUND: Bacterial meningitis can cause a life-threatening increase in intracranial pressure (ICP). ICP-targeted treatment including an ICP monitoring device and external ventricular drainage (EVD) may improve outcomes but is also associated with the risk of complications. The frequency of use and complications related to ICP monitoring devices and EVDs among patients with bacterial meningitis remain unknown. We aimed to investigate the use of ICP monitoring devices and EVDs in patients with bacterial meningitis including frequency of increased ICP, drainage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and complications associated with the insertion of ICP monitoring and external ventricular drain (EVD) in patients with bacterial meningitis.
METHODS: In a single-center prospective cohort study (2017-2021), we examined the frequency of use and complications of ICP-monitoring devices and EVDs in adult patients with bacterial meningitis.
RESULTS: We identified 108 patients with bacterial meningitis admitted during the study period. Of these, 60 were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and 47 received an intracranial device (only ICP monitoring device N = 16; EVD N = 31). An ICP > 20 mmHg was observed in 8 patients at insertion, and in 21 patients (44%) at any time in the ICU. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was drained in 24 cases (51%). Severe complications (intracranial hemorrhage) related to the device occurred in two patients, but one had a relative contraindication to receiving a device.
CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of the patients with bacterial meningitis needed intensive care and 47 had an intracranial device inserted. While some had conservatively correctable ICP, the majority needed CSF drainage. However, two patients experienced serious adverse events related to the device, potentially contributing to death. Our study highlights that the incremental value of ICP measurement and EVD in managing of bacterial meningitis requires further research.

BACKGROUND: Treatment and prevention of intracranial hypertension (IH) to minimize secondary brain injury are central to the neurocritical care management of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Predicting the onset of IH in advance allows for a more aggressive prophylactic treatment. This study aimed to develop random forest (RF) models for predicting IH events in TBI patients.
METHODS: We analyzed prospectively collected data from patients admitted to the intensive care unit with invasive intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring. Patients with persistent ICP > 22 mmHg in the early postoperative period (first 6 h) were excluded to focus on IH events that had not yet occurred. ICP-related data from the initial 6 h were used to extract linear (ICP, cerebral perfusion pressure, pressure reactivity index, and cerebrospinal fluid compensatory reserve index) and nonlinear features (complexity of ICP and cerebral perfusion pressure). IH was defined as ICP > 22 mmHg for > 5 min, and severe IH (SIH) as ICP > 22 mmHg for > 1 h during the subsequent ICP monitoring period. RF models were then developed using baseline characteristics (age, sex, and initial Glasgow Coma Scale score) along with linear and nonlinear features. Fivefold cross-validation was performed to avoid overfitting.
RESULTS: The study included 69 patients. Forty-three patients (62.3%) experienced an IH event, of whom 30 (43%) progressed to SIH. The median time to IH events was 9.83 h, and to SIH events, it was 11.22 h. The RF model showed acceptable performance in predicting IH with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.76 and excellent performance in predicting SIH (AUC = 0.84). Cross-validation analysis confirmed the stability of the results.
CONCLUSIONS: The presented RF model can forecast subsequent IH events, particularly severe ones, in TBI patients using ICP data from the early postoperative period. It provides researchers and clinicians with a potentially predictive pathway and framework that could help triage patients requiring more intensive neurological treatment at an early stage.

BACKGROUND: Raised intracranial pressure (ICP) contributes to approximately 20% of the admissions in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in our setting. Timely identification and treatment of raised ICP is important to prevent brain herniation and death in such cases. The objective of this study was to examine the role of optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) in detecting clinically relevant raised ICP in children.
METHODS: A hospital-based observational analytical study in a PICU of a tertiary care institute in India on children aged 2-14 years. ONSD was measured in all children on three time points that is, day 1, day 2 and between day 4 and 7 of admission. ONSD values were compared between children with and without clinical signs of raised ICP.
RESULTS: Out of 137 paediatric patients recruited, 34 had signs of raised ICP. Mean ONSD on day 1 was higher in children with signs of raised ICP (4.99±0.57 vs 4.06±0.40; p<0.01). Mean ONSD on day 2 also was higher in raised ICP patients (4.94±0.55 vs 4.04±0.40; p<0.01). The third reading between days 4 and 7 of admission was less than the first 2 values but still higher in raised ICP patients (4.48±1.26 vs 3.99±0.57; p<0.001). The cut-off ONSD value for detecting raised ICP was 4.46 mm on the ROC curve with an area under curve 0.906 (95% CI 0.844 to 0.968), 85.3% sensitivity and 86.4% specificity. There was no difference in ONSD between the right and the left eyes at any time point irrespective of signs of raised ICP.
CONCLUSIONS: We found that measurement of ONSD by transorbital ultrasound was able to detect clinically relevant raised ICP with an excellent discriminatory performance at the cut-off value of 4.46 mm.

Posterior fossa tumours are one of the most common types of solid neoplasia in paediatric patients. Although impaired vision can occur at presentation, it usually stabilises or improves after decompressive surgery. However, cases of permanent and profound visual loss have been reported following successful tumour resection, despite receiving little attention from the medical community. In this paper, we present two cases of young patients who experienced severe and permanent visual loss following uncomplicated surgery for posterior fossa tumour removal. We discuss the possible mechanism involved in the visual loss and measures to prevent such a dreadful complication.

BACKGROUND: Currently, there is a relative lack of detailed reports regarding clinical presentation and outcome of idiopathic intracranial hypertension in Asians. This study aims to describe the clinical features and treatment outcomes of Korean patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension.
METHODS: We prospectively recruited patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension from one hospital and retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 11 hospitals in Korea. We collected data regarding preceding medical conditions or suspected medication exposure, headache phenotypes, other associated symptoms, detailed neuroimaging findings, treatments, and outcomes after 1-2 and 3-6 months of treatment.
RESULTS: Fifty-nine (83.1% women) patients were included. The mean body mass index was 29.11 (standard deviation, 5.87) kg/m2; only 27 patients (45.8%) had a body mass index of ≥ 30 kg/m2. Fifty-one (86.4%) patients experienced headaches, patterns of which included chronic migraine (15/51 [29.4%]), episodic migraine (8/51 [15.7%]), probable migraine (4/51 [7.8%]), chronic tension-type headache (3/51 [5.9%]), episodic tension-type headache (2/51 [3.9%]), probable tension-type headache (2/51 [3.9%]), and unclassified (17/51 [33.3%]). Medication overuse headache was diagnosed in 4/51 (7.8%) patients. After 3-6 months of treatment, the intracranial pressure normalized in 8/32 (25.0%), improved in 17/32 (53.1%), no changed in 7/32 (21.9%), and worsened in none. Over the same period, headaches remitted or significantly improved by more than 50% in 24/39 patients (61.5%), improved less than 50% in 9/39 (23.1%), and persisted or worsened in 6/39 (15.4%) patients.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the features of Asian patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension may be atypical (i.e., less likely obese, less female predominance). A wide spectrum of headache phenotypes was observed. Medical treatment resulted in overall favorable short-term outcomes; however, the headaches did not improve in a small proportion of patients.

The rapid perfusion of cerebral arteries leads to a significant increase in intracranial blood volume, exposing patients with traumatic brain injury to the risk of diffuse brain swelling or malignant brain herniation during decompressive craniectomy. The microcirculation and venous system are also involved in this process, but the precise mechanisms remain unclear. A physiological model of extremely high intracranial pressure was created in rats. This development triggered the TNF-α/NF-κB/iNOS axis in microglia, and released many inflammatory factors and reactive oxygen species/reactive nitrogen species, generating an excessive amount of peroxynitrite. Subsequently, the capillary wall cells especially pericytes exhibited severe degeneration and injury, the blood-brain barrier was disrupted, and a large number of blood cells were deposited within the microcirculation, resulting in a significant delay in the recovery of the microcirculation and venous blood flow compared to arterial flow, and this still persisted after decompressive craniectomy. Infliximab is a monoclonal antibody bound to TNF-α that effectively reduces the activity of TNF-α/NF-κB/iNOS axis. Treatment with Infliximab resulted in downregulation of inflammatory and oxidative-nitrative stress related factors, attenuation of capillary wall cells injury, and relative reduction of capillary hemostasis. These improved the delay in recovery of microcirculation and venous blood flow.

BACKGROUND: We present a rare case of NeuroBehcet\'s-related intracranial hypertension without cerebral venous thrombosis (NBrIHwCVT), occurring as the first presentation of NeuroBehcet\'s. In addition, we describe the novel use of subcutaneous tocilizumab for this indication. This is followed by a review of the literature on this topic.
METHODS: The patient was a 28-year-old lady of Southern Chinese origin with a known history of Behcet\'s disease with oral ulcers and ocular findings for which she was on mycophenolate mofetil and adalimumab. She presented with a headache and bilateral disc swelling associated with an intracranial pressure (ICP) of > 40cmH20. There were no structural lesions or cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) on imaging. Initial lumbar puncture had raised leucocytes and protein. We discuss diagnostic challenges given persistently elevated ICP despite subsequent non-inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) profiles and non-response to acetazolamide. She eventually showed a response to immunosuppressant therapy in the form of pulsed methylprednisolone, cyclophosphamide and subsequently subcutaneous tocilizumab, supporting the diagnosis of NBrIHwCVT. Complete normalization of ICP remains challenging. Her disease course was severe, unusual for her ethnicity.
METHODS: We identified 34 patients (including ours) from 14 publications. We found that the majority of NBrIHwCVT patients were young (average age of 34 years), with a slight female preponderance. Of the 17 cases in the literature with available data on CSF profile, none had raised leucocytes whilst one patient had elevated protein. Patients were generally treated with steroids and occasionally azathioprine, in line with the suspected autoimmune pathophysiology. Of 22 patients with data on outcome, six (27%) were noted to have recurrence of symptoms generally occurring a few months later.
CONCLUSIONS: As demonstrated by this case, NBrIHwCVT can present with BD with raised ICP even if there is no prior history of NB, central Asian ethnicity, cerebral venous thrombosis or features of inflammation on the CSF. We demonstrated how novel use of Tocilizumab may have a role in the management of NBrIHwCVT. Based on our literature review, patients were more likely to be young, female, display a non-inflammatory CSF picture, be treated with steroids and harbour a possibility of recurrence.

The management of intracranial malignancies in pregnancy poses unique challenges to the perioperative team. We describe the successful surgical management of a meningioma in a 28-year-old previously healthy patient, in her third trimester of pregnancy, who first presented with a generalised seizure. Without clear guidelines on the management of intracranial malignancies in pregnancy, a multidisciplinary approach was essential in providing a management plan for the patient\'s seizures and on the timing of her surgical intervention. Hormone-mediated tumour growth was a significant factor in opting for urgent surgical intervention and we discuss the current evidence linking hormones to tumour growth in pregnancy.

UNASSIGNED: Endolymphatic sac tumor (ELST) is a rare lesion. It may be sporadically or associated with Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. Progressive audiovestibular symptoms characterize the typical clinical presentation. Here, we report a unique case of ELST with acute intracranial hypertension (IH) due to tumor compression, successfully treated with an urgent suboccipital decompressive craniectomy (SDC).
UNASSIGNED: A 33-year-old woman previously underwent a biopsy and ventriculoperitoneal shunt. The histopathological finding revealed an ELST. One year later, she developed headache, vomiting, and somnolence due to brainstem compression. An urgent SDC was performed. One month later, preoperative endovascular embolization and partial tumor resection were carried out. After 6 months adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) therapy was administered. She has been under follow-up for 8 years since the last surgical procedure, and the tumor remains stable.
UNASSIGNED: ELST generally has a progressive clinical course. This is a unique case with acute IH due to tumor compression. The tumor\'s high vascularity and the unavailability of endovascular embolization precluded its resection. SDC was an alternative approach. The final treatment included tumor embolization, surgical resection, and RT. No progression was observed for 8 years after the last procedure, and long-term follow-up is warranted.

OBJECTIVE: Progressive cerebral edema with refractory intracranial hypertension (ICP) requiring decompressive hemicraniectomy (DHC) is a severe manifestation of early brain injury (EBI) after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). The purpose of the study was to investigate whether a more pronounced cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage has an influence on cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and the extent of EBI after aSAH.
METHODS: Patients with aSAH and indication for ICP-monitoring admitted to our center between 2012 and 2020 were retrospectively included. EBI was categorized based on intracranial blood burden, persistent loss of consciousness, and SEBES (Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Early Brain Edema Score) score on the third day after ictus. The draining CSF and vital signs such as ICP and CPP were documented daily.
RESULTS: 90 out of 324 eligible aSAH patients (28%) were included. The mean age was 54.2 ± 11.9 years. DHC was performed in 24% (22/90) of patients. Mean CSF drainage within 72 h after ictus was 168.5 ± 78.5 ml. A higher CSF drainage within 72 h after ictus correlated with a less severe EBI and a less frequent need for DHC (r=-0.33, p = 0.001) and with a higher mean CPP on day 3 after ictus (r = 0.2351, p = 0.02).
CONCLUSIONS: A more pronounced CSF drainage in the first 3 days of aSAH was associated with higher CPP and a less severe course of EBI and required less frequently a DHC. These results support the hypothesis that an early and pronounced CSF drainage may facilitate blood clearance and positively influence the course of EBI.