Nonlinear closed-loop control system for intracranial pressure regulation.

A nonlinear closed-loop control system with flat pressure-versus-flow characteristics that is aimed at regulating intracranial pressure (ICP) by adjusting the volume of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) was designed, built, and tested. The control system design allows both the pressure setpoint and hysteresis to be adjusted to overcome the difficulties inherent in differential pressure-activated, fixed resistance, open-loop shunts. A dynamic six-compartment bench-top fluid system, which mimics the cerebral spinal fluid system, was designed, built, and tested. A computer simulation was developed which included the nonlinear on-off controller with hysteresis and a sixth-order, linear, multicompartmental model of the CSF system. The computer model and in vitro system results showed the ability of the system to track and compensate for pressure variations above and below normal as well as for spurious outputs that mimic such in vivo problems as blood pressure changes, sneezing, or coughing. There was one discrepancy between the simulated and in vitro results. The in vitro system had a higher rate of increase in pressure due to the more rigid compliance of the materials used, whereas the computer model compliance, based on the basal in vivo compliance of the CSF system, was less rigid. Based on these findings, the controller was modified to account for short-duration, extremely elevated pressures.