Intracranial hypertension is mainly caused by brain edema induced by different diseases

the key points of the treatment of brain edema is to pump water from the brain tissue into the intravascular space to reduce intracranial pressure by dehydrating agents

that is osmotic pressure therapy

and the most common used dehydrating agents are mannitol and hypertonic saline. Researches suggest that hypertonic saline may have more profound and long-lasting effect in reducing intracranial hypertension compared with mannitol. Therefore

the hypertonic saline has been widely used in the treatment of clinical cerebral edema in recent years

mainly by its mechanism of altering osmolarity

improving blood rheology

circulatory system and immune regulatory. However

there are inconsistencies in the dose

frequency

concentration and administration route of hypertonic saline. This paper reviews the treatment of intracranial hypertension with hypertonic saline.