Multimodal neuromonitoring for traumatic brain injury: A shift towards individualized therapy

• The prevention of secondary brain injury is paramount after TBI.
• Multimodal monitoring allows individualization of treatment goals.
• Specialized neurocritical care units and teams are associated with improved outcome.

Multimodal neuromonitoring in the management of traumatic brain injury (TBI) enables clinicians to make individualized management decisions to prevent secondary ischemic brain injury. Traditionally, neuromonitoring in TBI patients has consisted of a combination of clinical examination, neuroimaging and intracranial pressure monitoring. Unfortunately, each of these modalities has its limitations and although pragmatic, this simplistic approach has failed to demonstrate improved outcomes, likely owing to an inability to consider the underlying heterogeneity of various injury patterns. As neurocritical care has evolved, so has our understanding of underlying disease pathophysiology and patient specific considerations. Recent additions to the multimodal neuromonitoring platform include measures of cerebrovascular autoregulation, brain tissue oxygenation, microdialysis and continuous electroencephalography. The implementation of neurocritical care teams to manage patients with advanced brain injury has led to improved outcomes. Herein, we present a narrative review of the recent advances in multimodal neuromonitoring and highlight the utility of dedicated neurocritical care.