• Arjun V Pendharkar, Maryam N Shahin, Sohun S Awsare, Allen L Ho, Christine Wachira, Johnathan Clevinger, Sveinn Sigurdsson, Yohan Lee, Alicia Wilson, Amy C Lu, and Melanie Hayden Gephart.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
• Neurosurgery. 2021 Aug 16; 89 (3): 471-477.

BackgroundThere is a growing body of evidence suggesting not all craniotomy patients require postoperative intensive care.ObjectiveTo devise and implement a standardized protocol for craniotomy patients eligible to transition directly from the operating room to the ward-the Non-Intensive CarE (NICE) protocol.MethodsWe preoperatively identified patients undergoing elective craniotomy for simple neurosurgical procedures with age <65 yr and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class of 1, 2 or 3. Postoperative eligibility was confirmed by the surgical and anesthesia teams. Upon arrival to the ward, patients were staffed with a neuroscience nurse for hourly neurological examinations for the first 8 h. Patient demographics, clinical characteristics, and outcomes were prospectively collected to evaluate the NICE protocol.ResultsFrom February 2018 to 2019, 63 patients were included in the NICE protocol with a median age of 46 yr and 65% female predominance. Of the operations performed, 38.1% were microvascular decompressions, 31.7% were craniotomy for tumor, 15.9% were cavernous malformation resections, and 14.3% were Chiari decompressions. No patients required transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU). Median length of stay was 2 d. There was an 11.1% overall readmission rate within the median follow-up period of 48 d. Three patients (4.8%) required reoperation at time of readmission within the follow-up period (1 postoperative subdural hematoma, 2 cerebrospinal fluid leak repair). None of these complications could have been identified with a postoperative ICU stay.ConclusionIn our pilot trial of the NICE protocol, no patients required postoperative transfer to the ICU.© Congress of Neurological Surgeons 2021.

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