Design and evaluation of a low cost intracranial pressure monitoring system.

One of the most life-threatening neural conditions is elevated intracranial pressure (ICP); it is associated with ischemia and poor short- and long-term outcomes. Currently, monitoring systems that accurately measure ICP are either highly invasive or inaccurate. This work explores the design and evaluation of an epidural intracranial pressure monitoring system for low-cost, minimally invasive detection. Our goal is to develop a monitoring system that could also be integrated with an electrocorticography (ECoG) system. To this end we created a minimally invasive epidural ICP monitor for use with a 2 mm burr hole craniotomy. A MEMS piezoresistive sensors is used in the system, and its performance is evaluated for intracranial pressure measurements. Our system is calibrated and tested on the benchtop and demonstrated in vivo using an animal model.