Vestibulo-ocular monitoring in severe traumatic brain injury: early prediction of outcome

Introduction: Oculomotor response (OMR) to galvanic labyrinth polarization (GaLa) recorded soon after TBI should indicate the outcome of patients when considering the extent of brainstem damage after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) as critical for the evaluation. This importance of brainstem for outcome has been demonstrated by previous studies employing imaging techniques to visualize structural or functional brainstem lesions. Methods: Vestibulo-ocular monitoring (VOM) is based on video-oculographic recording of eye movements during GaLa stimulation of both labyrinths. The OMR is elicited via the vestibulo…