Blunt cerebrovascular injury is a relatively common finding in the traumatised patient and poses a number of clinical challenges. A Scandinavian group recently issued best practice guidelines for management of these injuries. You can find the article (free full-text) by Brommeland et al here.
This well-written article in Intensive Care Medicine nicely highlights the importance, and complexities, of the interaction between the brain and other organ systems in the setting of acute injury.
A very worthwhile excerpt on TBI from the Cambridge Handbook of Clinical Neurology, written by Menon and Ercole. Summarises current thinking on neurointensive care of TBI patients. Read it here.
POLAR RCT is probably the most anticipated neurotrauma trial of the year and its findings were finally presented at this year’s ESICM congress in Paris. Before I comment on what POLAR RCT is all about, it’s worth taking some time to consider what this trial is NOT about. It does not deal specifically with TBI… Continue reading POLAR RCT – Don’t Worry, Thermoregulation Isn’t Dead Quite Yet
Lactate is well-known as an important energy substrate for brain tissue and plays a key role in neuroenergetics. Experimental data have shown that exogenous lactate administration may improve metabolism in injured brain cells, and possibly has neuroprotective properties. Till now there has been a paucity of human clinical studies on this subject. Carteron et al… Continue reading Lactate Improves Cerebral Perfusion After Acute Brain Injury – Recent Clinical Trial in Crit Care Med
It’s been a lazy summer on our part, so it’s time to get back to business. And we’ll start off with this article by Moustafa et al, which was recently published in the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine. The authors deal with the issue of predicting risk of intracranial haemorrhage in TBI patients… Continue reading Predictive Factors of Traumatic Intracranial Haemorrhage in Patients on Anti-platelet Agents
I came across this useful little review in Kidney International Reports covering a subject I always find difficult to grasp: sodium disturbances and their influence on the brain. The article delves into the matter in a concise and understandable way, making it just about manageable even for an anaesthetist.
Meyfroidt and colleagues recently published a commentary in Intensive Care Medicine addressing ten tenets in neurocritical care that merit debate. The article deals with the following ten statements: 1. Only neurointensivists should care about the brain. 2. Clinical examination of neurocritically ill patients is impossible. 3. We should no longer monitor ICP in traumatic brain… Continue reading Meyfroidt et al in ICM: Ten false beliefs in neurocritical care
Excellent and widely read overview of sedation regimes in acute brain injury. Find the article by Oddo et al in Critical Care here.
Just published: the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine´s consensus document on fluid administration in the NICU. It covers all manner of neurocritical conditions and sums up the available evidence for various fluid therapy approaches. As expected there are few recommendations that aren´t already well established and by now fairly uncontroversial (multimodal monitoring, avoiding colloids,… Continue reading Fluid Therapy in Neurointensive Care patients – An ESICM Recommendation
neuroscand.com 