Abstract

OBJECTIVES The fibreoptic device is a type of intracranial pressure monitor which seems to offer certain advantages over conventional monitoring systems. This study was undertaken to analyse the accuracy, drift characteristics, and complications of the Camino® fibreoptic device.

METHODS One hundred and eight Camino® intracranial pressure (ICP) devices, in their three modalities, were implanted during 1997. The most frequent indication for monitoring was severe head injury due to road traffic accidents.

RESULTS Sixty eight probe tips were cultured; 13.2% of the cases had a positive culture without clinical signs of infection, and 2.9% had a positive culture with clinical signs of ventriculitis. The most common isolated pathogen wasStaphylococcus epidermidis. All patients were under cephalosporin prophylaxis during monitoring. Haemorrhage rate in patients without coagulation disorders was 2.1% and 15.3% in patients with coagulation abnormalities. Drift characteristics were studied in 56 cases; there was no drifting from the values expected according to the manufacturer's specifications in 34 probes. There was no relation between direction of the drift and duration of placement, nor between drift and time.

CONCLUSIONS Although the complication and drift rates were similar to those reported elsewhere, there was no correlation between the direction of the drift and long term monitoring despite the fact that some published papers refer to overestimation of values with time with this type of device.