Do a Neurocritical Care Unit Requires Dedicated Nurse Staff?

Cost reduction: what a staff nurse can do.

Therapeutic drug monitoring in the neurocritical care unit.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Various antiepileptics, sedative and anesthetic agents are used in the neurocritical care setting and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) has been proposed as a means to individualize dosing to ensure efficacy, avoid toxicity, and to account for drug-drug interactions. The purpose of this review is to highlight key articles relating to TDM published in the last 5 years with a fo...

Managing subarachnoid hemorrhage in the neurocritical care unit.

Patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage who survive the initial hemorrhage require complex interventions to occlude the aneurysm, typically followed by a prolonged intensive care unit and hospital course to manage the complications that follow. Much of the morbidity and mortality from this disease happens in delayed fashion in the neurocritical care unit. Despite progress made in the l...

Assessment of brain death in the neurocritical care unit.

This article reviews current guidelines for death by neurologic criteria and addresses topics relevant to the determination of brain death in the intensive care unit. The history of brain death as a concept leads into a discussion of the evolution of practice parameters, focusing on the most recent 2010 update from the American Academy of Neurology and the practice variability that exists world...

Improvement in Quality Metrics Outcomes and Patient and Family Satisfaction in a Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit after Creation of a Dedicated Neurocritical Care Team

Introduction Dedicated neurointensivists have been shown to improve outcome measurements in the neurosciences intensive care unit (NSICU). Quality outcome data in relation to patient and family satisfaction is lacking. This study evaluated the impact of newly appointed neurointensivists and creation of a neurocritical care team on quality outcome measures including patient satisfaction in a NSI...