High-Performance Bioinstrumentation for Real-Time Neuroelectrochemical Traumatic Brain Injury Monitoring

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been identified as an important cause of death and severe disability in all age groups and particularly in children and young adults. Central to TBIs devastation is a delayed secondary injury that occurs in 30–40% of TBI patients each year, while they are in the hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Secondary injuries reduce survival rate after TBI and usually occur within 7 days post-injury. State-of-art monitoring of secondary brain injuries benefits from the acquisition of high-quality and time-aligned electrical data i.e., ElectroCorticoGraphy (ECoG) recorded by means of strip electrodes placed on the brains surface, and neurochemical data obtained via rapid sampling microdialysis and microfluidics-based biosensors measuring brain tissue levels of glucose, lactate and potassium. This article progresses the field of multi-modal monitoring of the injured human brain by presenting the design and realization of a new, compact, medical-grade amperometry, potentiometry and ECoG recording bioinstrumentation. Our combined TBI instrument enables the high-precision, real-time neuroelectrochemical monitoring of TBI patients, who have undergone craniotomy neurosurgery and are treated sedated in the ICU. Electrical and neurochemical test measurements are presented, confirming the high-performance of the reported TBI bioinstrumentation.