Current opinion in critical care
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Apr 2022
ReviewHow to manage traumatic brain injury without invasive monitoring?
Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an extremely serious health problem, especially in low-middle income countries (LMICs). The prevalence of severe TBI continues to increase in LMICs. Major limitations in the chain of care for TBI patients are common in LMICs including suboptimal or nonexistent prehospital care, overburdened emergency services, lack of trained human resources and limited availability of ICUs. Basic neuromonitoring, such as intracranial pressure, are unavailable or underutilized and advanced techniques are not available. ⋯ Severe TBI is very prevalent in LMIC and neuromonitoring is often not available in these environments. When intracranial pressure monitors are not available, careful attention to changes on clinical examination, serial imaging and noninvasive monitoring techniques can help recognize intracranial hypertension and effectively guide treatment decisions.
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To discuss recent advances in the critical care management of acute ischaemic stroke patients and highlight controversies and consensus. ⋯ A bundle of medical, endovascular and surgical strategies implemented by a multidisciplinary team working to locally agreed protocols can improve long-term stroke outcomes.
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Fever is common after acute brain injury and is associated with poor prognosis in this setting. ⋯ As fever is considered a clinically relevant secondary brain damage, we have provided an individualized therapeutic approach to treat it in brain injured patients, which deserved further validation in the clinical setting.
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The aim of this study was to provide an overview on advances in intracranial pressure (ICP) protocols for care, moving from traditional to more recent concepts. ⋯ ICP management is a complex task, moving far than numeric thresholds for activation of interventions. The interactions of intracranial elements requires new interpretations moving beyond classical theories. Most of the traditional clinical studies supporting ICP management are not generating high class evidence. Recommendations for ICP management requires better designed clinical studies using new concepts to generate interventions according to the new era of personalized medicine.
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Curr Opin Crit Care · Apr 2022
ReviewIndividualized cerebral perfusion pressure in acute neurological injury: are we ready for clinical use?
Individualizing cerebral perfusion pressure based on cerebrovascular autoregulation assessment is a promising concept for neurological injuries where autoregulation is typically impaired. The purpose of this review is to describe the status quo of autoregulation-guided protocols and discuss steps towards clinical use. ⋯ The effect of autoregulation-guided management on patient outcomes must still be demonstrated in prospective, randomized, controlled trials. Selection of disease-specific protocols and endpoints may serve to evaluate the overall benefit from such approaches.