Neurocritical care
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Comment Review
The Urban-Rural Divide in Neurocritical Care in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries.
The term "urban-rural divide" encompasses several dimensions and has remained an important concern for any country. The economic disparity; lack of infrastructure; dearth of medical specialists; limited opportunities to education, training, and health care; lower level of sanitation; and isolating effect of geographical location deepens this gap, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). This article gives an overview of the rural-urban differences in terms of facilities related to neurocritical care (NCC) in LMICs. ⋯ To facilitate delivery of NCC in resource-limited settings, proposed strategies include strengthening preventive measures, focusing on basics, having a multidisciplinary approach, promoting training and education, and conducting cost-effective research and collaborative efforts. The rural areas of LMICs bear the maximum impact because of their limited access to preventive health services, high incidence of acquired brain injury, inability to have timely management of neurological emergencies, and scarcity of specialist services in a resource-deprived health center. An increase in the health budget allocation for rural areas, NCC education and training of the workforce, and provision of telemedicine services for rapid diagnosis, management, and neurorehabilitation are some of the steps that can be quite helpful.
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Despite improvements in survival after illnesses requiring extracorporeal life support, cerebral injury continues to hinder successful outcomes. Cerebral autoregulation (CA) is an innate protective mechanism that maintains constant cerebral blood flow in the face of varying systemic blood pressure. However, it is impaired in certain disease states and, potentially, following initiation of extracorporeal circulatory support. ⋯ Next, we examine factors intrinsic to ECMO that may affect CA, such as cannulation, changes in pulsatility, the inflammatory and adaptive immune response, intracranial hemorrhage, and ischemic stroke, in addition to ECMO management factors, such as oxygenation, ventilation, flow rates, and blood pressure management. We highlight potential mechanisms that lead to disruption of CA in both pediatric and adult populations, the challenges of measuring CA in these patients, and potential associations with neurological outcome. Altogether, we discuss individualized CA monitoring as a potential target for improving neurological outcomes in extracorporeal life support.
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Health disparities continue to plague racial and ethnic underserved patients in the United States. Disparities extend to the most critically ill patients, including those experiencing neurologic injury and patients at the end of life. Achieving health equity in palliative care in the neurointensive care unit requires clinicians to acknowledge and address structural racism and the social determinants of health. This article highlights racial and ethnic disparities in neurocritical care and palliative care and offers recommendations for an anti-racist approach to palliative care in the neurointensive care unit for clinicians.
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Managing patients with acute brain injury in the neurocritical care (NCC) unit has become increasingly complex because of technological advances and increasing information derived from multiple data sources. Diverse data streams necessitate innovative approaches for clinicians to understand interactions between recorded variables. Unsupervised clustering integrates different data streams and could be supportive. ⋯ Unsupervised clustering can be used to phenotype NCC patients, especially patients with TBI, in diverse disease stages and identify clusters that may be used for prognostication. Despite the need for validation studies, this methodology could help to improve outcome prediction models, diagnostics, and understanding of pathophysiology. Registration number: PROSPERO: CRD4202347097676.
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The Full Outline of UnResponsiveness (FOUR) score was developed to overcome the limitations of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) when assessing individuals with impaired consciousness. We sought to review the evidence regarding the predictive validity of the GCS and FOUR score in intensive care unit (ICU) settings. This review was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023420528). ⋯ The FOUR score may be superior to the GCS for predicting mortality in ICU settings. Further adequately powered studies with clear, reliable methods for assessment of index and outcome scores are required to clarify the predictive performance of both coma scales in ICUs. Inclusion of sedated patients may improve generalizability of findings in general ICU populations.