Neurocritical care
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Temperature regulation in humans is controlled by the hypothalamus. After death by neurological criteria, the hypothalamus ceases to function and poikilothermia ensues. Preservation of normothermia in those patients destined to become organ donors is an important part of maintaining the normal physiology of the organs and organ systems. Typical means of achieving normothermia include increasing the temperature of the ambient air, infrared warming lights, instillation of warmed intravenous fluids, and warm air or water blankets. ⋯ Intravascular warming is a viable method for the maintenance of normothermia in organ donors. The experience here provides some insight into the ability of these devices to warm patients in other clinical situations.
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No proven treatments exist for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Carefully selected patients may benefit from surgery, and an international multicenter trial is ongoing. We sought to determine how many patients in a population-based ICH cohort would have been eligible for surgery using the Surgical Trial in Intracerebral Hemorrhage II (STICH II) criteria. ⋯ In this population-based ICH cohort, 7.7% (22 of 286) of ICH patients would have qualified for STICH II enrollment. Other treatment options need to be explored for most ICH patients.
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Osmotic agents such as mannitol remain a mainstay in the management of cerebral edema and raised intracranial pressure. Some patients do not respond to sustained mannitol administration with the expected rise in serum osmolality, and this may correlate with lack of therapeutic efficacy. ⋯ A substantial proportion of patients receiving sustained mannitol do not manifest the expected osmotic response. This lack of response may correlate with the failure of clinical efficacy seen in a subgroup of patients, who then require alternate agents such as hypertonic saline. This association merits further exploration.
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Cerebral vasospasm (CV) with infarction causes a significant degree of morbidity and mortality after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). We sought to determine if reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) on Xenon CT within 48 h of the ictus was predictive of developing CV with infarction. ⋯ Lower initial CBF at presentation is a risk factor for developing CV with infarction. These findings may help in early prediction of this entity and may have therapeutic implications in the future.
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Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) is a noninvasive method for detecting arterial cerebral vasospasm (CVS) in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) has been increasingly used for CVS diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of agreement between TCD and CTA in diagnosing clinical CVS following SAH, and to define the role of CTA in triaging patients prior to digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and endovascular intervention. ⋯ Clinical evaluation and TCD can reliably diagnose CVS in symptomatic patients and PMV >180 cm/s, or can rule out CVS in asymptomatic patients with PMV <140 cm/s. In this category of patients, adding a CTA to clinical evaluation and TCD may not be warranted.