Ethical and Legal Aspects Applicable to the Neurological Intensive Care Unit Neurologists and neurosurgeons in the neurological intensive care unit (neuro-ICU) frequently must decide on the level of care to…
Spinal Cord Injury Approximately 10,000 patients a year in the United States are rendered paraplegic or quadriplegic as a result or injuries to the spinal cord. There are an estimated…
Viral Encephalitis and Bacterial Meningitis In the past 20 years the complexity of caring for patients with acute encephalitis and meningitis in the critical care setting has increased. This is…
Status Epilepticus Status epilepticus (called “status” throughout this chapter) is a life-threatening neurological emergency with a high mortality and morbidity. In several series it accounts for 1% to 8% of…
Treatment of the Critically Ill Patient with Myasthenia Gravis Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an uncommon disorder of immune pathogenesis that affects neuromuscular transmission and causes regional and generalized fatigable weakness….
Critical Care of Guillain-Barré Syndrome Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), as it is commonly known, or acute inflammatory polyneuropathy, is the most frequent cause of acute and subacute generalized paralysis now that…
Hypoxic-Ischemic Cerebral Injury The cerebral effects of cardiac arrest are not strictly a neurological intensive care unit (neuro-ICU) problem; neurologists and intensivists are called on to give authoritative opinions regarding…
Intensive and Postoperative Care of Intracranial Tumors Although patients who have just been operated on for tumor occupy a large proportion of beds in many neurological intensive care units (neuro-ICUs),…
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) represents a small portion of cerebrovascular disease, but accounts for a significant amount of stroke morbidity and mortality. The annual incidence of nontraumatic SAH is…
Management of Nontraumatic Brain Hemorrhage The third most common cause of death in the United States is cerebrovascular disease, and 10% to 15% of strokes are intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH). There…
