Articles: neurocritical-care.
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Journal of neurosurgery · May 2024
Development of an adjustable patient-specific rigid guide to improve the accuracy of external ventricular catheter placement.
The most common method for external ventricular drain (EVD) placement is the freehand approach, which has reported inaccuracy rates of 12.3%-44.9%, especially in the case of altered ventricular anatomy. Current assistive devices require added time or equipment or do not account for shifted ventricles. To improve the accuracy of emergent EVD placement in the setting of altered ventricular anatomy, the authors designed a patient-specific EVD (PS-EVD) guide. ⋯ The PS-EVD guide allows consistent and accurate EVD placement in phantom skulls with both normal and altered ventricular anatomy. Further trials comparing this device to the freehand approach are required.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Feb 2024
Randomized Controlled TrialControl of mean arterial pressure using a closed-loop system for norepinephrine infusion in severe brain injury patients: the COMAT randomized controlled trial.
Brain injury patients require precise blood pressure (BP) management to maintain cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and avoid intracranial hypertension. Nurses have many tasks and norepinephrine titration has been shown to be suboptimal. This can lead to limited BP control in patients that are in critical need of cerebral perfusion optimization. ⋯ Over the four-hour study period, the mean percentage of time with MAP in target was greater in the CLV group than in the control group (95.8 ± 2.2% vs. 42.5 ± 27.0%, p < 0.001). Severe undershooting, defined as MAP < 10 mmHg of target value was lower in the CLV group (0.2 ± 0.3% vs. 7.4 ± 14.2%, p < 0.001) as was severe overshooting defined as MAP > 10 mmHg of target (0.0 ± 0.0% vs. 22.0 ± 29.0%, p < 0.001). The CLV system can maintain MAP in target better than nurses caring for severe brain injury patients.
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The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of coma among patients in critical care units in Chile. We also aimed to provide insight into the demographic characteristics, etiologies, and complications associated with coma. ⋯ This study provides an overview of the prevalence of coma in Chilean critical and cardiac care units. Coma is a common condition. Comatose patients frequently experience medical complications during their hospitalization.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Oct 2023
ReviewHeadache Management in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit.
Headache is a common symptom in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit (NeuroICU). Our goal is to provide an overview of approaches to headache management for common neurocritical care conditions. ⋯ Headache disorders afflict nearly half of patients admitted to the NICU. Commonly encountered disorders featuring headache include cerebrovascular disease, trauma, and intracranial infection. Approaches to pain are highly variable, and multimodal pain regimens are commonly employed. The overall body of evidence supporting therapeutic strategies to manage headache in the critical care setting is slim, and pain control remains suboptimal in many cases with persistent reliance on opioids. Headache is a complex, frequently occurring phenomenon in the NeuroICU care setting. At present, literature on evidence-based practice for management of headache in the critical care setting remains scarce, and despite multimodal approaches, reliance on opioids is commonplace.
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Remote ischemic lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) occur in one third of patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and are associated with worse outcomes. The etiology is unclear and not solely due to blood pressure reduction. We hypothesized that impaired cerebrovascular autoregulation and hypoperfusion below individualized lower limits of autoregulation are associated with the presence of DWI lesions. ⋯ Blood pressure reduction below the LLA is associated with ischemia after acute ICH. Individualized, autoregulation-informed targets for blood pressure reduction may provide a novel paradigm in acute management of ICH and require further study.