RE:ICP
(Date Posted:01/21/2008 12:26 AM)
Uncle Tom
Sandy had it almost correct. ICP is inter-cranial pressure. Basically what happens is your body recycles all the CSF (cranial/spinal fluid) over the course of a day or two. When someone has a bleed like Mom had, the blood in her cranial cavity can coagulate and block the natural flow of CSF, which is secreted in the brain and flows down the spine to a cavity at the base of the spine where it is reabsorbed by the body. When that happens, just like a plugged sink, pressure builds up in the cranium. The reason they did the lumbar puncture was to get rid of the heavier, blood laden CSF that may have settled to the base of Mom's spine. She doesn't actually have another drain installed there, they just went in with a syringe and drew out the fluid. The hope being that by removing the bllod laden fluid there, they might help open Mom's natural drainage path. The drain she has currently installed is in the top of her skull, and basically a tube runs to a beaker which can be slip up and down a graduated scale to make the drain more uphill or downhill, thereby controlling the pressure in her skull. The scale is graduated in inches of mercury, and the whole thing works just like a barometer. Once they are able to close her drain for 24-48 hours, they will know that her natural path of flow for her CSF is working, and then they can remove the drain. Hope that helps!
|
