Revue médicale suisse
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Ankle fractures in adults are usually managed by open reduction internal fixation. In elderly patients the surgical dilemma relates to bone quality. Osteoporosis is the enemy of internal fixation, and secure purchase of screws in osteopenic bone may be difficult to achieve. ⋯ However, this is not feasible in older patients as a result of their lack of strength in the upper extremities and frequent comorbidities. Therefore, augmen- ted methods of internal fixation and specific surgical techniques have been developed using metal and bone cement. This permits this fragile population to begin early full weight bearing in a removable brace.
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A lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a condition frequently encountered in primary care medicine. It may give rise to a compression of one or more nerve roots, which can lead to a nerve root irritation, a so-called radiculopathy, with or without a sensorimotor deficit. The majority of LDHs can be supported by means of a conservative treatment consisting of physical therapy, ergotherapy, analgetics, anti-inflammatory therapy or corticosteroids, which may be eventually administered by infiltrations. If a clinico-radiological correlation is present and moderate neurological deficit appears suddenly, if it is progressive under conservative treatment or if pain is poorly controlled by well-conducted conservative treatment performed during four to six months, surgery is then recommended.
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Revue médicale suisse · Dec 2014
Review[Multimodal neuromonitoring for the critical care management of acute coma].
Management of neurocritical care patients is focused on the prevention and treatment of secondary brain injury, i.e. the number of pathophysiological intracerebral (edema, ischemia, energy dysfunction, seizures) and systemic (hyperthermia, disorders of glucose homeostasis) events that occur following the initial insult (stroke, hemorrhage, head trauma, brain anoxia) that may aggravate patient outcome. The current therapeutic paradigm is based on multimodal neuromonitoring, including invasive (intracranial pressure, brain oxygen, cerebral microdialysis) and non-invasive (transcranial doppler, near-infrared spectroscopy, EEG) tools that allows targeted individualized management of acute coma in the early phase. The aim of this review is to describe the utility of multimodal neuromonitoring for the critical care management of acute coma.
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Revue médicale suisse · Dec 2014
Review[Continuous EEG monitoring for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage].
Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) still carries a high morbidity and mortality, despite improvement in surgical and medical management. Seizures and delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) secondary to vasospasm or cortical spreading depression are frequent after SAH. ⋯ However, its use in clinical practice is still limited because many resources are required for recording and analyzing continuous EEG. Moreover, we require more data to confirm the relationship between aggressive treatment of non-convulsive seizure or delayed cerebral ischemia triggered by continuous EEG and outcome.