Neurocritical care
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Management of refractory status epilepticus (SE) commonly involves the induction of burst suppression using intravenous anesthetic agents. However, the endpoints of these therapies are not well defined. Weaning anesthetic agents are complicated by the emergence of electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns along the ictal-interictal continuum (IIC), which have uncertain significance given that IIC patterns may worsen cerebral metabolism and oxygenation, have a dissociation between scalp and depth EEG recordings, or may indicate a late stage of SE itself. Determining the significance of IIC patterns in the unique context of anesthetic weaning is important to prevent the potential for unnecessarily prolonging anesthetic coma. ⋯ IIC patterns encountered during anesthetic weaning may be transitional and warrant observation, allowing for the emergence of more definitive clinical or electrographic results. The metabolic impact of these IIC patterns on brain activity is uncertain, but weaning strategies that treat IIC as a surrogate of recurrent SE risk further prolonging anesthetic management and its known toxicity. We speculate that these patterns may have a context-specific association with SE relapse, with less-risk conferred when these patterns are observed during the weaning of anesthetic agents after prolonged burst-suppression therapy. Other electrographic features aside from this clinical context may discriminate the risk of SE relapse, such as EEG background activity.
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To estimate rates of all-cause and potentially preventable readmissions up to 90 days after discharge for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and medical comorbidities associated with readmissions BACKGROUND: Readmission rate is a common metric linked to compensation and used as a proxy to quality of care. Prior studies in SAH have reported 30-day readmission rates of 7-17% with a higher readmission risk among those with the higher SAH severity, ≥ 3 comorbidities, and non-home discharge. Intermediate-term rates, up to 90-days, and the proportion of these readmissions that are potentially preventable are unknown. Furthermore, the specific medical comorbidities associated with readmissions are unknown. ⋯ SAH has a 30-day readmission rate of 7.8% which continues to rise into the intermediate-term. A low but constant proportion of readmissions are potentially preventable. Several chronic medical comorbidities were associated with readmissions. Prospective studies are warranted to clarify causal relationships.
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Abstract
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The pathophysiological mechanisms of Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) and related seizures remain poorly understood. The prevalence and clinical significance of nonconvulsive seizures (NCSz) and related epileptiform patterns during continuous electroencephalography monitoring (CEEG) in PRES have not been well described. ⋯ Our results reveal a high prevalence of NCSz and PDs in critically ill patients with PRES and an association with restricted diffusion and worse outcome, whether treating or preventing these EEG findings can improve outcome requires further research.
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Cerebral mitochondrial dysfunction is prominent in the pathophysiology of severe bacterial meningitis. In the present study, we hypothesize that the metabolic changes seen after intracisternal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection in a piglet model of meningitis is compatible with mitochondrial dysfunction and resembles the metabolic patterns seen in patients with bacterial meningitis. ⋯ The metabolic changes after intracisternal LPS injection is compatible with disturbance in the oxidative metabolism and partly due to mitochondrial dysfunction with increasing cerebral LPR due to increased lactate and normal pyruvate, PbtO2, and ICP. The metabolic pattern resembles the one observed in patients with bacterial meningitis. Metabolic monitoring in these patients is feasible to monitor for cerebral metabolic derangements otherwise missed by conventional intensive care monitoring.