INTRACEREBRAL TEMPERATURE MONITORING IN SEVERELY HEAD-INJURED PATIENTS

In a series of 6 severely head injured patients, intraventricular as w ell as rectal, bladder and jugular vein temperature is recorded. The r elationship between these temperatures in different conditions is eval uated. Intracerebral temperature is 0.5 +/- 0.2 degrees C (mean +/- SD ) higher than bladder temperature except in conditions such as brain d eath. It is concluded that rectal temperature is not representative an d therefore not a good alternative to the measurement of brain tempera ture. More data on human intracerebral temperature are mandatory as we ll as prospective studies correlating intra cerebral temperature with final outcome in head injury.