Lowering of Intracranial Pressure in Reye's Syndrome by Sensory Stimulation

To the Editor: In Reye's syndrome, elevations of intracranial pressure (ICP) are often accompanied by acute neurologic deterioration, and many current treatment protocols use continuous ICP monitoring to determine the need for osmotic diuresis, hyperventilation, hypothermia, and barbiturate administration.¹ Other investigators have found that noxious stimulation can produce acute elevations of ICP, even in deeply comatose patients.² Having also observed this deleterious effect, we tested the ability of gentle tactile and auditory stimulation to decrease ICP in seven comatose patients, four to 15 years of age, with Reye's syndrome. According to the Lovejoy clinical criteria, ³ five patients were in Stage. . .