Raumedic launches home use intracranial pressure monitoring device

Raumedic has launched an intracranial pressure monitoring device for home use, which will be on display at Medica.

With the help of an implanted telemetric catheter, the device called Raumed Home ICP measures pressure inside the cranium – the intracranial pressure, or ICP. The product has recently received CE marking and was developed primarily for people who suffer from hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is the buildup of cerebral fluid that increases the size of cavities in the brain. The device is intended to facilitate the diagnosis of this and similar clinical pictures and to provide indications for therapy. 

The neuromonitoring requires an approximately 20-minute procedure in which the neurosurgeon fully implants a catheter under the patient’s scalp. To register and store the intracranial pressure data, the circular reader antenna of the device is then placed above the catheter. The patient is then free to move about in their home environment. The patient can use the control element to select certain activities and events occurring during measurement, such as sleeping, eating, headache, nausea or sports. 

Ingo Bartels, head of the neuromonitoring department at Raumedic, said: “What used to only be possible at the clinic can now be carried out at home. While patients are taking care of their daily activities, the Raumed Home ICP is continuously monitoring their intracranial pressure.”

Bartels suggests scientists believe it is precisely these active phases and specific events that give neurosurgeons better insights for therapy. He also points out that the values obtained with the Raumedic intracranial pressure monitoring device still have to be reconciled with other established diagnostic methods. 

He added: “The data taken by self-measurement – together with information from additional treatments – give physicians a sound basis for decisions and for initiating suitable therapeutic measures.”