Continuous intraventricular cerebrospinal fluid pressure recording in hydrocephalic children during wakefulness and sleep

Continuous 24 hr recordings of intracranial pressure and electroencephalographic activity were made on 5 hydrocephalic children in whom, in the resting wakefulness state, the intracranial pressure (ICP) was considered normal. An increase in both the mean ICP and its oscillations related to cardiac systole was recorded during slow wave sleep. Further episodic increases, up to a factor of 7 compared to wakefulness values, occurred during sleep. In 3 patients it was possible to correlate such episodic increases to the rapid eye movement phases of sleep. The authors discuss these phenomena and their possible implication in the progression of hydrocephalus.