Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia
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Review
Multimodal neuromonitoring for traumatic brain injury: A shift towards individualized therapy.
Multimodal neuromonitoring in the management of traumatic brain injury (TBI) enables clinicians to make individualized management decisions to prevent secondary ischemic brain injury. Traditionally, neuromonitoring in TBI patients has consisted of a combination of clinical examination, neuroimaging and intracranial pressure monitoring. Unfortunately, each of these modalities has its limitations and although pragmatic, this simplistic approach has failed to demonstrate improved outcomes, likely owing to an inability to consider the underlying heterogeneity of various injury patterns. ⋯ Recent additions to the multimodal neuromonitoring platform include measures of cerebrovascular autoregulation, brain tissue oxygenation, microdialysis and continuous electroencephalography. The implementation of neurocritical care teams to manage patients with advanced brain injury has led to improved outcomes. Herein, we present a narrative review of the recent advances in multimodal neuromonitoring and highlight the utility of dedicated neurocritical care.
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Review Case Reports
Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome following hemodynamic treatment of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced vasospasm.
Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is an uncommon but significant complication of hemodynamic therapy after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH)-induced vasospasm. We performed a PubMed literature search for the period January 1999 to January 2015 using the search terms "posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome", "subarachnoid hemorrhage", "vasospasm", and "hypertensive encephalopathy", and identified nine cases of PRES after aSAH-induced vasospasm in the literature. We also present a 63-year-old man with aSAH complicated by vasospasm treated with hemodynamic augmentation who subsequently developed PRES. ⋯ To summarize, PRES is a rare complication of hemodynamic therapy for vasospasm following aSAH. The literature at the time of writing demonstrates no common pattern with regard to patient demographics, medical history, or mode of treatment for symptomatic vasospasm. Given its sporadic and unpredictable nature, considering PRES in the differential diagnosis is important when addressing neurological decline following hemodynamic treatment of vasospasm related to aSAH.
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Cerebral vasospasm is a devastating complication after subarachnoid hemorrhage. The use of cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (SctO2) to non-invasively assess changes in cerebral tissue perfusion induced by intra-arterial (IA) verapamil treatment has not been described to our knowledge. A total of 21 consecutive post-craniotomy patients scheduled for possible IA verapamil treatment of cerebral vasospasm were recruited. ⋯ We were unable to obtain reliable measurements on the side ipsilateral to the craniotomy during four procedures in three patients, presumably secondary to pneumocephalus. The local cerebral vasodilating effect of IA verapamil injection is suggested by the differential changes in SctO2 ipsilateral and contralateral to the ICA injection side. The inconsistent changes in SctO2 and the limitations of applying cerebral oximetry in this patient population needs to be recognized.
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Comparative Study
Durable brain response with pulse-dose crizotinib and ceritinib in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer compared with brain radiotherapy.
Crizotinib achieves excellent systemic control in anaplastic lymphoma kinase-rearranged (ALK+) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); however, central nervous system (CNS) metastases frequently occur as an early event. Whole brain irradiation, the standard treatment, results in neurocognitive impairment. We present a case series of three ALK+ NSCLC patients with progressing CNS metastases who were treated with pulse-dose crizotinib followed by ceritinib. ⋯ This strategy provided durable CNS control after whole-brain radiotherapy failure in Patient 1, and allowed the whole-brain radiotherapy to be deferred in Patient 2. Limited CNS progression was documented in Patient 3 while he was on standard-dose/pulse-dose crizotinib for 15months; durable (over 7 months) complete remission was achieved with stereotactic radiotherapy and ceritinib. Manipulating the crizotinib schedule in ALK+ NSCLC patients with CNS metastases and using a novel ALK-inhibitor at the time of further progression may provide durable CNS control and allow brain radiotherapy to be deferred.
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Developmental venous anomalies (DVA) and cavernous malformations (CM) are a common form of mixed vascular malformation. The relationship between DVA, CM and hemorrhage is complicated. It is important to differentiate hemorrhagic CM and hemorrhagic DVA. ⋯ Infratentorial hemorrhagic DVA are characterized by cerebellar predominance and benign clinical course. Infratentorial hemorrhagic CM are mainly located in the brainstem. DVA should be given suspected rather than CM when considering the etiology of a cerebellar hemorrhage, especially in young adults.