Effect of Magnesium Sulphate on the Intracranial Pressure of Preeclamptic Patients

It had been shown that high percentage of severe preeclampsia patients got a high cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) due to abnormal autoregulation of cerebral blood vessels with associated endothelial dysfunction and disrupted blood brain barrier. Moreover, patients with high CPP is more likely to present with headache compared to other patients with normal CPP.In this particular scenario, use of magnesium sulphate is associated with marked reduction of CPP and. hence prevention of cerebral damage.This hypothesis was confirmed by new magnetic resonance techniques that demonstrated brain edema in eclampsia/ severe preeclampsia patient mostly due to vasogenic edema and less commonly attributed to cytotoxic edema. Changes in the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) mirrors the changes in the Intracranial pressure(ICP), subsequently when the intracranial pressure increases the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONDS) also increases. The aim of this study is to determine the effect Magnesium sulphate infusion on intracranial pressure, in patients presented with severe preeclampsia by measuring changes in the ONSD using ultrasound examination.