Hypothermic total body washout and intracranial pressure monitoring in Stage IV Reye syndrome.

The number of children in this report treated with either TBW or exchange transfusions is small. Case mortality rates among children with Reye syndrome in Stage IV coma tends to be exceedingly high, varying from 50 to 100%. Intracranial pressure monitoring with the subarachnoid screw may have been an additional factor in increasing our survival data in three patients in the TBW group, since it provided continuous monitoring of ICP and allowed judicious administration of mannitol intravenously. Survival of five of six patients without neurologic sequelae in the present series has encouraged us to coninue utilization of TBW in children with Stage IV Reye syndrome.