RT Journal
A1 Rogers MC, Kirsch JR
T1 CUrrent concepts in brain resuscitation
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1989
FD June 2
VO 261
IS 21
SP 3143
OP 3147
DO 10.1001/jama.1989.03420210091022
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1989.03420210091022
AB WHILE the initial impetus for intensive care 20 years ago grew out of major advances in cardiac and pulmonary care, the last decade has seen a tremendous interest in neurological intensive care. Several factors have combined to stimulate this interest. First, as intensivists provided better care to sicker patients with cardiac and pulmonary disease, critically ill patients survived more often and a review of their longterm complications noted a significant frequency of neurological problems. Next, as an outgrowth of the Vietnam War, techniques for rapid evacuation of casualties were used to improve treatment for traffic accident victims in the United States. The result was large numbers of hospitalized patients with head injury. Neurosurgical techniques designed to treat head-injured patients, including intracranial pressure monitoring, became commonplace in tertiary care hospitals. Pharmacologic and physiological treatment for cerebral edema, developed for patients with head injury, was used in medical patients with conditions ranging