Automated Chest Physiotherap to Improve Outcomes in Neurocritical Care: An Intracranial Pressure Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of chest physiotherapy (CPT) on intracranial pressure (ICP). Because CPT is a normal part of the routine care provided to patients in the neurocritical care unit (NCU) this is an observational study of current practice.

1. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of chest physiotherapy (CPT) on intracranial pressure (ICP). Because CPT is a normal part of the routine care provided to patients in the neurocritical care unit (NCU) this is an observational study of current practice.
2. The study will include only patients who currently have intracranial pressure monitoring devices in place (intraventricular and intraparenchymal). The study will last 1-hour and all subjects in the study will receive 10-minutes of CPT. The 10-minute CPT episode will be randomly assigned to occur 10, 20, 30 or 40-minutes into the study.
3. ANCOVA using SAS will be used to explore for within and between group differences in ICP. This study observes current standard practice, there are no additional risks to the subject.