Neurocritical care
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Bacterial meningitis and viral encephalitis, particularly herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE), are severe neurological infections that, if not treated promptly and effectively, lead to poor neurological outcome or death. Because treatment is more effective if given early, the topic of meningitis and encephalitis was chosen as an Emergency Neurological Life Support protocol. ⋯ Though uncommon in its full form, the typical clinical triad of headache, fever, and neck stiffness should alert the clinical practitioner to the syndromes. Early attention to the airway and maintaining normotension is crucial in treatment of these patients, as is rapid treatment with anti-infectives and, in some cases, corticosteroids.
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Acute non-traumatic weakness may be life-threatening if it involves respiratory muscles or is associated with dysautonomia. Most patients presenting with an acute muscle weakness have a worsening neurologic disorder that requires a rapid, systematic approach, and detailed neurologic localization of the findings. ⋯ Because acute weakness is a common presenting sign of neurological emergencies, it was chosen as an Emergency Neurological Life Support protocol. An inclusive list of causes of acute weakness is explored, both by presenting complaint and anatomical location, with an outline of the key features of the history, examination, investigations, and treatment for each diagnosis.
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Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) is a series of protocols, generated by experienced neurocritical care and emergency physicians that describe key steps when managing a patient within the first hours of a neurological emergency. The protocols are designed to help standardize these important early steps for several reasons: (1) patients will likely experience better outcomes, (2) they provide the essential elements to communicate to receiving physicians a patient's diagnosis and emergency treatment, (3) this approach forms the foundation for eventual consensus on neurological emergency decisions, and (4) this consensus can inform researchers about the important clinical questions that need resolution to enhance patient care. ⋯ Certification and training in ENLS is hosted by the Neurocritical Care Society. This document introduces the concept of ENLS, reviews the history of its creation, and enumerates future goals as ENLS becomes adopted more widely.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
A new technology for detecting cerebral blood flow: a comparative study of ultrasound tagged NIRS and 133Xe-SPECT.
There is a need for real-time non-invasive, continuous monitoring of cerebral blood flow (CBF) during surgery, in intensive care units and clinical research. We investigated a new non-invasive hybrid technology employing ultrasound tagged near infrared spectroscopy (UT-NIRS) that may estimate changes in CBF using a cerebral blood flow index (CFI). Changes over time for UT-NIRS CFI and 133Xenon single photon emission computer tomography (133Xe-SPECT) CBF data were assessed in 10 healthy volunteers after an intravenous bolus of acetazolamide. ⋯ There was a significant correlation between CFI and SPECT CBF values (r = 0.67 and P ≤ 0.033) at 15 min, but not at 60 min (P ≥ 0.777). UT-NIRS detected an increase in CFI following an acetazolamide bolus, which correlated with CBF measured with 133Xe-SPECT. This study demonstrates that UT-NIRS technology may be a promising new technique for non-invasive and real-time bedside CBF monitoring.