RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Brain Tissue Oxygen Monitoring and the Intersection of Brain and Lung: A Comprehensive Review JF Respiratory Care FD American Association for Respiratory Care SP 1232 OP 1244 DO 10.4187/respcare.04962 VO 61 IS 9 A1 Laura B Ngwenya A1 John F Burke A1 Geoffrey T Manley YR 2016 UL http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/61/9/1232.abstract AB Traumatic brain injury is a problem that affects millions of Americans yearly and for which there is no definitive treatment that improves outcome. Continuous brain tissue oxygen (PbtO2) monitoring is a complement to traditional brain monitoring techniques, such as intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure. PbtO2 monitoring has not yet become a clinical standard of care, due to several unresolved questions. In this review, we discuss the rationale and technology of PbtO2 monitoring. We review the literature, both historic and current, and show that continuous PbtO2 monitoring is feasible and useful in patient management. PbtO2 numbers reflect cerebral blood flow and oxygen diffusion. Thus, continuous monitoring of PbtO2 yields important information about both the brain and the lung. The preclinical and clinical studies demonstrating these findings are discussed. In this review, we demonstrate that patient management in a PbtO2-directed fashion is not the sole answer to the problem of treating traumatic brain injury but is an important adjunct to the armamentarium of multimodal neuromonitoring.