Abstract: A low profile parenchymal bolt having a cap, a body, and a base with two rods located through the cap that the base. Levers are located at the cap and are interconnected with the rods. Moving the levers outwardly pulls the rods and base towards the cap compressing the body and causing its outer diameter to increase into contact with an opening in the skull of a patient to form a fluid-tight seal and fixing the bolt in position. A lumen permits mounting an instrument through the bolt and when the body is compressed, the lumen reduces in size thus clamping the instrument in place in the bolt and forming a fluid-tight seal. Through use of non-ferric materials, artifacts in MRI are reduced.

Abstract: An intracranial pressure monitoring and drainage catheter having two tubes that are joined into a single tube at the catheter body distal end, each tube having a separate lumen. One tube is severed at a location proximal to the catheter body distal end and has an internal connector that may be removed from one severed end to introduce a stylet into the lumen. The stylet results in increased rigidity of the catheter body distal end to assist in placing the catheter in the patient. The wall of the distal end of the catheter has drainage apertures formed in communication with the lumen in which the stylet is placed. Reconnecting the internal connector after removal of the stylet provides a fluid path from the distal end of the catheter body to the proximal end of the catheter for drainage of fluid from the patient. A sensor may be placed in the other lumen for sensing a physical parameter of the patient, such as pressure or temperature or both.

Abstract: An apparatus for continuous monitoring of cerebral blood flow and intracranial pressure for substantially the same local region of cerebral tissue. A combined probe includes an elongated housing member that contains an ICP probe and a single optical fiber LDF microprobe. The LDF probe and the ICP probe are situated adjacent to each other within the elongated housing member, and preferably their respective intracranial ends are flush with the distal end of the elongated housing member. In addition, the combined probe is adapted to cooperate with an intracranial access system for securing the combined probe, and mitigating movement artifacts. In another embodiment, a combined probe includes a tissue oxymetry probe thus providing both metabolic and hemodynamic information for the same locus of cerebral tissue, and may be used for measuring a local cerebral metabolic rate.