Doppler assessment of the cerebral circulation in pediatric intensive care.

This article gives an interim overview of the potentials of TCD as a monitoring instrument in pediatric intensive care. In the near future, typical TCD flow patterns associated with adverse neurologic outcomes must be defined so they can promptly be recognized during intensive care surveillance or intraoperatively, before permanent damage occurs. Further applications of monitoring will deliver new and exciting insights into the physiology and pathophysiology of cerebral circulation in the critically ill child. Continuous recording of the Doppler waveforms and ICP may make it possible to determine the critical CPP and to improve the control of the therapy of cerebral edema.