Articles: neurocritical-care.
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Observational Study
Myocardial dysfunction assessed by speckle-tracking in good-grade subarachnoid hemorrhage patients (WFNS 1-2): a prospective observational study.
Cardiac complications due to non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) are usually described using classical echocardiographic evaluation. Strain imaging appears to have better sensitivity than standard echocardiographic markers for the diagnosis of left ventricular dysfunction. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cardiac dysfunction defined as a Global Longitudinal Strain (GLS) ≥ - 20% in patients with good-grade SAH (WFNS 1 or 2). ⋯ Strain imaging showed a higher prevalence (60.6%) of left ventricular dysfunction during the acute phase of good-grade SAH (WFNS 1 or 2) than previously described.
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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.
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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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Shared decision-making is a joint process where patients, or their surrogates, and clinicians make health choices based on evidence and preferences. We aimed to determine the extent and predictors of shared decision-making for goals-of-care discussions for critically ill neurological patients, which is crucial for patient-goal-concordant care but currently unknown. ⋯ Fewer than 1 in 10 goals-of-care clinician-family meetings for critically ill neurological patients contained all shared decision-making elements. Our findings highlight gaps in shared decision-making. Interventions promoting shared decision-making for high-stakes decisions in these patients may increase patient-value congruent care; future studies should also examine whether they will affect decision quality and surrogates' health outcomes.