A very structured and useful approach to dealing with the undifferentiated comatose patient in the ER. EMCrit´s Scott Weingart interviews neurocritical care heavy-hitter Dr. Eelco Wijdicks of the Mayo Clinic. You can find the podcast here, together with handy show notes. I especially appreciate the focus on the Four Score as an adjunct to the Glasgow Coma… Continue reading EMCrit podcast: Coma By Eelco Wijdicks
A thought provoking take on death by neurological criteria, challenging the traditionally accepted concept of brain death. Listen to the talk from SMACC DUB here.
Watch this lecture by Michael Avidan, Washington University School of Medicine. Introduction and clinical use of EEG. Another resource are the learning modules of Partners Healthcare. Register for free at www.anesthesiaeeg.com.
Ivan came across this very useful and reasonably understandable introduction to EEG monitoring for anaesthetic use. It´s put together by the guys at ICETAP (International Consortium for EEG Training of Anesthesia Practitioners). It´s part of a series of tutorials on all things EEG for complete novices.
Follow the link to read the article: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2577957
Brain Trauma Foundation has just published the 4th edition of Guidelines for the Management of Severe TBI. Study the guidelines here.
Published in 2011 by Schmidt et al (free full-text in Stroke), this article looks at CPP thresholds for cerebral hypoxia in SAH patients. They went through multimodal monitoring data for 30 patients with poor-grade SAH. Using microdialysis and brain tissue oxygenation as their main determinants of hypoxia, they found that patients with a CPP <70… Continue reading Cerebral Perfusion Pressure Thresholds for Brain Tissue Hypoxia and Metabolic Crisis After Poor-Grade Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
There´s a paucity of guidelines and recommendations on diagnostic pathways in patients on warfarin who sustain head injuries. This article by Alrajhi et al from 2015 (J Emerg Med) looked at an historical cohort of patients on warfarin admitted for either minor (Glasgow Coma Score 13-15, with loss of consciousness, amnesia, or confusion) or minimal (Glasgow Coma Score… Continue reading To CT or not CT? Intracranial Haemorrhage in Patients on Warfarin
Published in NEJM 2016, the Antihypertensive Treatment of Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage II (ATACH-II) trial compared two BP-management regimes in intracerebral haemorrhage patients with hypertension (SBP>180 mmHg): Intensive lowering to SBP 110-139 mm Hg. vs. standard treatment to within the 140-179 mm Hg range. The trial was discontinued early after an interim analysis showed no difference between the groups in… Continue reading ATACH II Trial – No Benefit From Aggressive BP-lowering in ICH
Transfusing thrombocytes to patients taking anti-platelet therapy who develop an intracerebral hemorrhage seems to confer harm, according to the authors of the PATCH trial (abstract). Published recently in the Lancet by Baharoglu et al, this multicentre RCT included 190 patients in order to determine whether platelet transfusion reduces extent of haemorrhage, thereby improving outcome, in ICH associated with… Continue reading PATCH – Trial: Platelets in ICH Harmful
neuroscand.com 