Implementation of portable head CT imaging in patients with severe acute brain injury in a French ICU: a prospective before-after design pilot study

Head-CT-scanning is a cornerstone procedure during the management of patients admitted for acute brain injury (ABI) in intensive care unit (ICU). But intrahospital transfer for these procedure may cause severe adverse events potentially worsening the brain injuries. Portable head-CT (pCTH) may facilitate pCTH performance in safer conditions for the patients avoiding transfer out of the ICU. To evaluate the safety and the time duration required to use a portable head CT (pCTH) scanner in the intensive care unit (ICU) in the French healthcare system in ICU patients admitted for acute brain injury.We prospectively included all ICU-patients admitted for severe ABI over a 2-year period following before-after design. As the main outcome, we compared the time required to perform a scan with pCTH to that with conventional head CT (cCTH) and reported adverse events. In total, forty-five patients were included (25 in the pCTH group and 21 in the cCTH group). The median (interquartile) time required to perform a scan with pCTH was 28 (23-48) minutes compared to 30 (25-36) minutes with cCTH (p=0.825). The duration time required to perform a pCTH was similar to that with cCTH in an ICU of the French healthcare system without increasing adverse events.