Articles: brain-injuries.
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Editorial
Managing Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Across Resource Settings: Latin American Perspectives.
Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is a condition of increasing epidemiologic concern worldwide. Outcomes are worse as observed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) versus high-income countries. Global targets are in place to address the surgical burden of disease. ⋯ Decompressive craniectomy (DC) decreases intracranial pressure burden and can be lifesaving. Nevertheless, completed randomized controlled trials took place within high-income settings, leaving important questions unanswered and making extrapolations to LMICs questionable. The concept of preemptive DC specifically to address limited neuromonitoring resources may warrant further study to establish a benefit/risk profile for the procedure and its role within local protocols of care.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Dec 2022
Editorial CommentThe mechanical power in neurocritical care patients: is it useful?
Patients with acute brain injury have been excluded in the majority of the randomized clinical trials which evaluated a lung protective strategy in patients with acute respiratory failure. It remains unclear if low tidal volume, higher PEEP levels and recruitment maneuvers by increasing both the intracranial and intrathoracic pressure and by leading to a permissible hypercapnia could furthermore deteriorate the acute brain injury and the final outcome. ⋯ Jiang et al. demonstrated in neurocritical patients that non-survivors had a higher mechanical power compared to survivors. Mechanical power was associated with an increase in intensive care mortality risk and also to an enhanced risk of hospital mortality, prolonged intensive care length of stay and fewer ventilatory free days; in addition, the mechanical power could better predict mortality compared to the Glasgow Coma Scale.