Brain Function Monitoring of Critically Ill Pregnant Patients

The brain undergoes significant physiologic changes during pregnancy. Pregnant women who are critically ill with obstetric disorders, such as eclampsia, preeclampsia, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), and benign intracranial hypertension, and those with severe TBI or other disorders that need prolonged sedation in the ICU may require appropriate neuromonitoring during their ICU stay. Despite the variety of invasive and noninvasive neuromonitoring tools, daily clinical neurological examination (including Glasgow coma scoring, assessment of pupil size, and daily focal neurologic deficit evaluation) remains the cornerstone component of neuromonitoring during the ICU stay of such patients.