• Matti Pokela, Pekka Romsi, Fausto Biancari, Kai Kiviluoma, Vilho Vainionpää, Janne Heikkinen, Erkka Rönkä, Timo Kaakinen, Jorma Hirvonen, Jussi Rimpiläinen, Vesa Anttila, Enrico Leo, and Tatu Juvonen.
• Department of Surgery, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
• Scand. Cardiovasc. J. 2002 Sep 1; 36 (5): 302-7.

ObjectiveAn increase in intracranial pressure has been shown to threaten the outcome of patients with ischemic or traumatic brain injury. Its impact on the outcome of pigs undergoing hypothermic circulatory arrest has been evaluated in this study.DesignFifty-six pigs underwent a 75-min period of hypothermic circulatory arrest at 20 degrees C. Intracranial pressure, cerebral microdialysis, hemodynamic and metabolic parameters were monitored throughout the experiment. The animals were allowed to survive until the 7th postoperative day and, then, electively killed.ResultsThe 7-day survival rate was 60.7%, and among survivors, 20 of them (58.8%) developed brain infarction. A significant increase in intracranial pressure as compared with the baseline level was observed since the end of cooling (p = 0.047) and the difference became larger during all the postoperative intervals (p < 0.0001). Animals that died postoperatively tended to have higher intracranial pressure levels during all the postoperative intervals, but such a difference reached significance only at the 4-h postoperative interval (p = 0.040). The same tendency was observed among animals that survived until the 7th postoperative day and that developed brain infarction or not, but the difference between these two groups did not reach statistical significance. The animals that died or developed postoperatively brain infarction had higher intracranial pressure values postoperatively as compared with those that survived without developing brain infarction and such a difference reached significance at the 2-h (p = 0.015) and 4-h postoperative intervals (p = 0.035). The peak intracranial pressure was 17.2 mmHg (IQR, 13.7-20.8) in animals that died or developed brain infarction and 14.1 mmHg (IQR, 11.8-16.4) in those that survived 7 days without developing brain infarction (p = NS).ConclusionIntracranial pressure increases significantly after 75 min of experimental hypothermic circulatory arrest and such an increase is associated with a high risk of postoperative death and brain infarction.

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