Pressure in the sagittal sinus during intracranial hypertension in man
✓ Intracranial pressure (ICP) and sagittal sinus pressure (SSP) were measured simultaneously in 12 patients with brain tumors and secondary intracranial hypertension (ICH). In nine, the mean SSP was largely unaffected by changes in ICP. In three, SSP changed with the ICP. In all but one patient, the ICP remained higher than SSP and, as the ICP increased, the difference between the two also increased. Sinograms performed during ICH demonstrated partial collapse of the sinuses in some patients and not in others. The mean SSP in adults with brain tumors appears to respond unpredictably to changes in ICP. Since the rate of cerebrospinal fluid drainage depends upon the gradient between ICP and SSP, intracranial spatial compensation is probably influenced by the response of SSP to ICP. Individuals with gradients that rapidly increase because their sinuses do not collapse probably compensate more rapidly than those whose sinuses do collapse. This assumed difference in the rate of spatial compensation may account for some of the variability of the ICP response to an enlarging intracranial mass or a change in cerebral blood volume.