Craniospinal Pressure–Volume Dynamics in Phantom Models

Regulation of intracranial pressure (ICP) is vital to proper brain function. Pathologic conditions such as traumatic brain injury and hydrocephalus can cause lethal changes in ICP through an imbalance of fluid passage into and out of the craniospinal space. The relationship between craniospinal volume and pressure determines to a large extent whether such imbalance can be compensated or if it will lead to neuronal damage. Phantom models are predisposed for the evaluation of medical procedures and devices that alter volume in the spinal or cranial space. However, current phantoms have substantial limitations in the reproduction of craniospinal pressure-volume relationships, which need to be overcome prior to their deployment outside the basic research setting. We present herein a novel feedback controlled phantom for the reproduction of any physiologic or pathologic pressure-volume relation. We compare its performance to those of existing passive methods, showing that it follows reference curves more precisely during both infusion of large volumes and fast oscillatory volume changes.