Neurocritical care
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Managing patients with acute brain injury in the neurocritical care (NCC) unit has become increasingly complex because of technological advances and increasing information derived from multiple data sources. Diverse data streams necessitate innovative approaches for clinicians to understand interactions between recorded variables. Unsupervised clustering integrates different data streams and could be supportive. ⋯ Unsupervised clustering can be used to phenotype NCC patients, especially patients with TBI, in diverse disease stages and identify clusters that may be used for prognostication. Despite the need for validation studies, this methodology could help to improve outcome prediction models, diagnostics, and understanding of pathophysiology. Registration number: PROSPERO: CRD4202347097676.
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Long-term outcomes of patients with severe acute brain injury (SABI) and their surrogate decision makers (SDMs) are insufficiently explored. ⋯ Mental health symptoms among SDMs of patients with SABI were frequent at 18-24 months, and the patients' quality of life was deemed unacceptable for 42% of SDMs to independent survivors. Our findings underscore the need for psychosocial support to SDMs, the importance of addressing modifiable barriers to patient and SDM well-being, and the need for more patient/family-centric outcome measures.
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Delirium occurs frequently in patients with stroke, but the role of preexisting neural substrates in delirium pathogenesis remains unclear. We sought to explore associations between acute and chronic neural substrates of delirium in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). ⋯ Chronic white matter disease is independently associated with delirium in patients with acute ICH, and neuroimaging biomarkers may have utility in predicting delirium occurrence.
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Corticosteroids are prescribed for refractory headache in patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) despite limited supporting evidence. We hypothesized that a short course of corticosteroids would reduce pain. ⋯ Short-term corticosteroids only slightly reduced maximum pain severity after spontaneous SAH. Other analgesic strategies are required to manage refractory pain in this population.