Neurologist
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Review
Seizures and CNS hemorrhage: spontaneous intracerebral and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Convulsive and nonconvulsive seizures frequently complicate acute brain injury particularly central nervous system hemorrhages and both have been associated with poor outcome. No randomized controlled trials have been conducted to guide decisions on seizure prophylaxis or treatment. The magnitude of additional injury from nonconvulsive seizures remains controversial and some argue that these epileptiform patterns primarily represent surrogate markers of severely injured brain. The deleterious effects of seizures on brain recovering from a recent injury have to be weighed against the deleterious effects of antiepileptic medications when making decisions on prophylaxis and treatment. ⋯ Convulsive and nonconvulsive seizures are frequent after central nervous system hemorrhage and treatment is controversial, particularly for nonconvulsive seizures. Randomized controlled trials need to be conducted to better allow evidence-based guidelines for these common neurologic conditions.
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Cervical spondylosis is part of the aging process and affects most people if they live long enough. Degenerative changes affecting the intervertebral disks, vertebrae, facet joints, and ligamentous structures encroach on the cervical spinal canal and damage the spinal cord, especially in patients with a congenitally small cervical canal. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is the most common cause of myelopathy in adults. ⋯ Neurologists should be familiar with this very common condition. Patients with mild signs and symptoms of CSM can be monitored. Surgical decompression from an anterior or posterior approach should be considered in patients with progressive and moderate to severe neurologic deficits.
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Even in milder cases, neurologic complications related to cardiac surgery increase mortality, hospitalization time, and rehabilitation costs, and so contribute to the decrease in quality of life. The incidence of neurologic complications has remained unchanged during the last years, despite age and comorbidity increasing. Improvement in technical approaches has probably contributed to maintain these percentages. ⋯ In a population progressively older and presumably affected by an increasing number of diseases, preventive strategies should be focused on 3 aspects: first, technical improvements in cardiac surgery and cerebral protection; second, pharmacologic therapy; and, finally, identification of reliable techniques to evaluate neuropsychological dysfunction after cardiac surgery. Future efforts will be necessary to identify surrogate markers of neurologic damage and its functional outcome, perhaps related to genetic susceptibility. Only with all of these instruments, really effective preventive or palliative strategies could be planned and applied.