Neurological care -the dawn of new era
The ultimate goal of intensive care for severely ill patients is rehabilitation to allow a return to society and resumption of daily activities.
Rather than just achieving an improvement in the post-treatment outcome of life, we need to aim for good neurological outcomes that enable a return to daily activities.
It is important to plan treatment for all diseases with a full understanding of how prevention of secondary brain injury impacts the primary disease and the condition of the entire body.
We therefore need to consider n eurocritical care aimed at improving neurological outcomes.
To date, multidisciplinary teams including intensivists and neurology specialists have treated the primary disease and managed patients with a view to preventing secondary brain injury in severe t raumatic br ain injuries, stroke, status epilepticus, post-cardiac arrest syndrome, encephalitis and encephalopathy, neuromuscular disease and other conditions.
Evidence is accumulating to support the concept that prevention of secondary brain injury is not only relevant to CNS diseases, but should be considered for all serious conditions requiring intensive care.
As such, it is possible to define neurocritical care as intensive care aimed at providing neu rocritical care and improving neurological outcomes for severe brain and neurological diseases and also for conditions where secondary brain injury may occur regardless of the type of disease.
The role of the Neurocritical Care Committee is to always consider how all healthcare roles responsible for intensive care across a wide range of disease types can treat severe brain and neurological diseases and prevent secondary brain injury, and to establish environments for this to be put into practice and promote education on and uptake of this approach.
We are entering a new era in neurocritical care.
