[Diagnosis of intracranial hypertension in patients with severe cranio-cerebral trauma].

Manifestations of brain injury were examined in 64 patients with severe craniocerebral injuries on the basis of comparing the clinico-neurological data to the results of continuous long-term control of intracranial pressure (ICP) and computer-aided tomography (CT). As a rule, patients with well-defined focal cortico-subcortical symptomatology demonstrated normal ICP, with no ventricles and cisternae of the basis cerebri being compressed as shown by CT. In patients with the increasing brain stem symptoms associated with the levelling of the focal cortico-subcortical symptomatology, ICP was elevated and computer-aided tomograms showed foci of brain contusion, intracranial hematomas, compressed ventricles and cisternae of the basis cerebri. If gross symptoms of the derangement of the basis cerebri appear in the foreground with no focal cortico-subcortical lesions being manifest, the patients develop, as a rule, stable and increasing hypertension while CT shows the signs of gross compression of the ventricles and cisternae of the basis cerebri in conjunction with foci of brain contusion and intracranial hematomas. In primarily unilateral hemispheric lesions, the patients manifest asymmetric hydrocephalus.