Passive intracranial pressure sensor for hydrocephalus shunts and cranioplasty implants with ultrasound readout

Project Summary/Abstract Intracranial pressure in healthy supine adults is controlled by cerebral autoregulation. However, in the case of medical conditions such as hydrocephalus, severe brain trauma, brain infection, brain tumor, and brain surgery, the change in pressure can surpass the body’s ability for autoregulation, which can result in brain damage or even death. Therefore, postoperative intracranial pressure monitoring is critically important to ensure the safety of the patient and improve outcomes. However, current solutions for monitoring the intracranial pressure are limited to hospital settings in which usually a percutaneous wire connection provides power and readout to an implanted pressure sensor. This reduces the patient’s mobility and carries an increased risk of infection and malfunction. Additionally, the emerging fully implantable solutions are not suitable for chronic and out-of-hospital use due to bulky readout, power requirements, and high cost. This project aims to develop an innovative, passive, and low-cost ultrasound readable intracranial pressure sensor based on biocompatible polymeric materials. This sensor is integrated into the shunt implant system in the case of hydrocephalus patients or is embedded into a novel sonolucent cranioplasty implant used to restore skull contour during cranioplasty surgeries. Adding a pressure sensor to these implants will result in an intracranial pressure monitoring solution that incorporates the high accuracy of an implanted device and entirely passive ultrasound readout into the traditional implants and allows for continuous intracranial pressure monitoring suitable for prolonged chronic usage.