Neurocritical care
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of Phenylephrine and Ephedrine on Cerebral (Tissue) Oxygen Saturation During Carotid Endarterectomy (PEPPER): A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Short-acting vasopressor agents like phenylephrine or ephedrine can be used during carotid endarterectomy (CEA) to achieve adequate blood pressure (BP) to prevent periprocedural stroke by preserving the cerebral perfusion. Previous studies in healthy subjects showed that these vasopressors also affected the frontal lobe cerebral tissue oxygenation (rSO2) with a decrease after administration of phenylephrine. This decrease is unwarranted in patients with jeopardized cerebral perfusion, like CEA patients. The study aimed to evaluate the impact of both phenylephrine and ephedrine on the rSO2 during CEA. ⋯ Within this randomized prospective study, MAP correction by either phenylephrine or ephedrine showed to be equally effective in maintaining rSO2 in patients who underwent CEA. Clinical Trial Registration ClincalTrials.gov, NCT01451294.
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This article was updated to correct the spelling of Karl Georg Haeusler.
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This historical vignette revisits the main contributions by Nils Lundberg, a neurosurgeon, that were published in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Lundberg studies also definitively established that symptoms of abnormal brainstem function resulted from abnormal intracranial pressure (ICP), and moreover, even variations in ICP could produce clinical symptoms. The most innovative result of continuous monitoring was the discovery of plateau-shaped waves that produced paradoxical symptoms previously designated as "decerebrate" and "tonic fits" or "acute coning."
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Within the last couple of decades, advances in critical care medicine have led to increased survival of critically ill patients, as well as the discovery of notable, long-term health challenges in survivors and their loved ones. The terms post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) and PICS-family (PICS-F) have been used in non-neurocritical care populations to characterize the cognitive, psychiatric, and physical sequelae associated with critical care hospitalization in survivors and their informal caregivers (e.g., family and friends who provide unpaid care). ⋯ We acknowledge the clinical factors contributing to the difficulty in studying PICS in the neurocritical care patient population, provide recommendations for future lines of research, and encourage collaboration among critical care physicians in all specialties to facilitate continuity of care and to help elucidate mechanism(s) of PICS and PICS-F in all critical illness survivors. Finally, we discuss the importance of early detection of PICS and PICS-F as an opportunity for multidisciplinary interventions to prevent and treat new neuropsychological deficits in the neurocritical care population.
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Arterial hyperglycemia is associated with poor outcome in traumatic brain injury (TBI), but the pathophysiology is not completely understood. Previous preclinical and clinical studies have indicated that arterial glucose worsens pressure autoregulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of arterial glucose to both pressure reactivity and cerebral energy metabolism. ⋯ High arterial glucose was associated with poor outcome, poor pressure autoregulation, and cerebral energy metabolic disturbances. The latter two suggest a pathophysiological mechanism for the negative effect of arterial hyperglycemia, although further studies are needed to elucidate if the correlations are causal or confounded by other factors.