Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) was chosen as an Emergency Neurological Life Support topic due to its frequency, the impact of early intervention on outcomes for patients with TBI, and the need for an organized approach to the care of such patients within the emergency setting. This protocol was designed to enumerate the practice steps that should be considered within the first critical hour of neurological injury.
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Review Case Reports
Transcranial Doppler Sonography in Pediatric Neurocritical Care: A Review of Clinical Applications and Case Illustrations in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Transcranial Doppler sonography is a noninvasive, real-time physiologic monitor that can detect altered cerebral hemodynamics during catastrophic brain injury. Recent data suggest that transcranial Doppler sonography may provide important information about cerebrovascular hemodynamics in children with traumatic brain injury, intracranial hypertension, vasospasm, stroke, cerebrovascular disorders, central nervous system infections, and brain death. Information derived from transcranial Doppler sonography in these disorders may elucidate underlying pathophysiologic characteristics, predict outcomes, monitor responses to treatment, and prompt a change in management. We review emerging applications for transcranial Doppler sonography in the pediatric intensive care unit with case illustrations from our own experience.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Nov 2015
Review Meta AnalysisCerebral vasospasm after traumatic brain injury: an update.
Post-traumatic vasospasm (PTV) remains a poorly understood entity. Using a systematic review approach, we examined the incidence, mechanisms, risk factors, impact on outcome and potential therapies of PTV. ⋯ Mechanical stretching, inflammation, calcium dysregulation, endotelin, contractile proteins, products of cerebral metabolism and cortical spreading depolarization have been involved in PTV pathophysiology. PTV occurs in up to 30-40% of the patients after severe traumatic brain injury. Usually, PTV starts within the first 3 days following head trauma and may last 5 to 10 days. Young age, low Glasgow Coma Score at admission and subarachnoid hemorrhage have been identified as risk factors of PTV. Suspected on transcranial Doppler, PTV diagnosis is best confirmed by angiography, CT angiography or MR angiography, and perfusion and ischaemic consequences by perfusion CT or MRI. Early PTV is associated with poor outcome. No PTV prevention strategy has proved efficient up to now. Regarding PTV treatment, only nimodipine and intra-arterial papaverine have been studied up to now. Treatment with milrinone has been described in a few cases reports and may represent a new therapeutic option.
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Journal of neurosurgery · Nov 2015
Review Meta Analysis Comparative StudyComparisons between small intestinal and gastric feeding in severe traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Nutritional support is highly recommended for reducing the risk of nosocomial infections, such as pneumonitis, in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Currently, there is no consensus for the preferred route of feeding. The authors compared the risks of pneumonitis and other important outcomes associated with small intestinal and gastric feeding in patients with severe TBI. ⋯ The limited evidence suggests that small bowel feeding in patients with severe TBI is associated with a risk of pneumonia that is lower than that with gastric feeding. From this result, the authors recommend the use of small intestinal feeding to reduce the incidence of pneumonitis in patients with severe TBI.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Nov 2015
ReviewThe enigma of the latent period in the development of symptomatic acquired epilepsy - Traditional view versus new concepts.
A widely accepted hypothesis holds that there is a seizure-free, pre-epileptic state, termed the "latent period", between a brain insult, such as traumatic brain injury or stroke, and the onset of symptomatic epilepsy, during which a cascade of structural, molecular, and functional alterations gradually mediates the process of epileptogenesis. This review, based on recent data from both animal models and patients with different types of brain injury, proposes that epileptogenesis and often subclinical epilepsy can start immediately after brain injury without any appreciable latent period. ⋯ Knowing whether a latent period exists or not is important for our understanding of epileptogenesis and for the discovery and the trial design of antiepileptogenic agents. The development of antiepileptogenic treatments to prevent epilepsy in patients at risk from a brain insult is a major unmet clinical need.