Annales françaises d'anesthèsie et de rèanimation
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Sepsis-associated encephalopathy is a global cerebral dysfunction induced by the systemic response to inflammation and infection, without a liver or renal injury. Alteration of consciousness, from confusion to coma, is the main clinical symptom. This encephalopathy is associated with an increase in mortality due to sepsis. ⋯ Changes in neurotransmitter release or concentrations (norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, GABA) have been reported. There is not any specific treatment of septic encephalopathy. In most cases, this syndrome is rapidly reversible after the treatment of sepsis.
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Ann Fr Anesth Reanim · Aug 2006
Review[What sedation for prevention and treatment secondary brain insult?].
The aim of sedation and analgesia is to prevent secondary brain insult. The goals of sedation are the prevention and treatment of intracranial hypertension and systemic disorders. In such situation, the use of sedative and analgesic therapy should respect the rate of cerebral blood flow/cerebral oxygen consumption coupling while preserving cerebral perfusion pressure and decreasing the intracranial pressure. ⋯ The use of neuromuscular blockers should be focused on the patients with an intracranial hypertension refractory to standard treatment. The presence of brain damage in patients makes difficult to assess the level of sedation. One should avoid over sedation, which increases morbidity by prolongation of the duration of mechanical ventilation.
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The benefit of therapeutic hypothermia after severe head injury is highly controversial. However, hypothermia is still used and studied in this context for multiple reasons. ⋯ Moreover, ICP is related to core temperature, and hypothermia may be used to decrease intracranial hypertension. However, many questions are still unresolved and can explain discrepancies between clinical studies: direct measurement of cerebral temperature, relationship between ICP, temperature and PaCO(2), level and duration of hypothermia and precise methods for cooling and particularly for rewarming.
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Decompressive craniectomy was purposed for the treatment of refractory intracranial hypertension after head injury. This review discusses results obtained by this surgery in severe head trauma. ⋯ These results have not been confirmed prospectively, and indications have to be clarified. The positive effects of decompressive craniectomy compared to barbiturate or hypocapnia in the "second tier therapy" in refractory intracranial hypertension could be interesting to evaluate.
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Hypernatremia exerts its main effect on the brain through the osmotic gradient it creates on either side of the blood brain barrier, which is impermeable to sodium. This generates a transfer of water from the intracellular to the vascular sector leading to temporary cell shrinkage. Osmoregulation permits cerebral cells to accumulate osmoactive molecules in order to restore their initial volume. ⋯ Then continuous infusion of HS, with the objective of inducing hypernatremia, had produced encouraging effects on intracranial pressure control. However, these results were limited to non-randomized studies, without control groups and mainly in pediatric patients. Nevertheless, the use of HS on intracranial hypertension, refractory to conventional treatments, could be reasonable under strict monitoring of natremia as well as its adverse effects.