Accuracy and stability of temperature probes for intracranial application.

Intracranial temperature measurement may play a pivotal role for prognosis and treatment of neurological and neurosurgical patients. For reliable clinical application, accurate temperature readings are therefore necessary. We present an independent in vitro study investigating the accuracy and stability of three temperature probes. Eight Neurovent-P Temp (RN), eight Licox temperature sensors (LT) and eight Neurotrend sensors (NT) were placed into a water bath. The temperature was increased in 3 degrees C increments from 30 to 42 degrees C before (accuracy test day 0) and after (accuracy test day 5) a long-term stability test run at 37 +/- 0.2 degrees C. The accuracy tests revealed deviation…