Raised intracranial pressure and cerebral blood flow. 4. Intracranial pressure gradients and regional cerebral blood flow

Abstract

Intracranial pressure was raised by expansion of a supratentorial subdural ballon in anaesthetized baboons. Pressures were measured at several sites, both supratentorial and infratentorial, and cerebral blood flow was measured in each cerebral hemisphere separately. Pressures recorded from the right and left lateral ventricles corresponded closely throughout. Highly significant correlations were also obtained between the pressures in the right and left subdural spaces and the mean intraventricular pressure. There was, thus, no evidence of intracompartmental pressure gradients within the supratentorial space. Pressure gradients did, however, develop between the supratentorial and infratentorial compartments in the majority of experiments, although the level of supratentorial pressure at which this occurred, varied. Despite the presence of a large mass lesion over the right cerebral hemisphere, no significant differences developed between levels of cerebral blood flow in the two hemispheres, although flow in the right hemisphere remained consistently slightly lower than that in the left after the ballon was inserted.