Management Strategies for Intracranial Pressure Crises in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Development of a predictive nomogram for 28-day mortality risk in non-traumatic or post-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage patients

OBJECTIVE

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is associated with high rates of mortality and permanent disability. At present, there are few definite clinical tools to predict prognosis in SAH patients. The current study aims to develop and assess a predictive nomogram model for estimating the 28-day mortality risk in both non-traumatic or post-traumatic SAH patients.

METHODS

The MIMIC-III database was searched to select patients with SAH based on ICD-9 codes. Patients were separated into non-traumatic and post-traumatic SAH groups. Using LASSO regression analysis, we identified independent risk factors associated with 28-day mortality and incorporated them into nomogram models. The performance of each nomogram was assessed by calculating various metrics, including the area under the curve (AUC), net reclassification improvement (NRI), integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and decision curve analysis (DCA).

RESULTS

The study included 999 patients with SAH, with 631 in the non-traumatic group and 368 in the post-traumatic group. Logistic regression analysis revealed critical independent risk factors for 28-day mortality in non-traumatic SAH patients, including gender, age, glucose, platelet, sodium, BUN, WBC, PTT, urine output, SpO2, and heart rate and age, glucose, PTT, urine output, and body temperature for post-traumatic SAH patients. The prognostic nomograms outperformed the commonly used SAPSII and APSIII systems, as evidenced by superior AUC, NRI, IDI, and DCA results.

CONCLUSION

The study identified independent risk factors associated with the 28-day mortality risk and developed predictive nomogram models for both non-traumatic and post-traumatic SAH patients. The nomogram holds promise in guiding prognosis improvement strategies for patients with SAH.

Hemoglobin Drop is Associated with Early Post-operative Stroke Following Revascularization Surgery for Moyamoya Disease

BACKGROUND

Postoperative stroke is a potentially devastating neurological complication following surgical revascularization for Moyamoya disease. We sought to evaluate whether peri-operative hemoglobin levels were associated with the risk of early post-operative stroke following revascularization surgery in adult Moyamoya patients.

METHODS

Adult patients having revascularization surgeries for Moyamoya disease between 1999-2022 were identified through single institutional retrospective review. Logistic regression analysis was used to test for the association between hemoglobin drop and early postoperative stroke.

RESULTS

In all, 106 revascularization surgeries were included in the study. A stroke occurred within 7 days after surgery in 9.4% of cases. There were no significant associations between the occurrence of an early postoperative stroke and patient age, gender, or race. Mean postoperative hemoglobin drop was greater in patients who suffered an early postoperative stroke compared with patients who did not (2.3±1.1 g/dL vs. 1.3±1.1 g/dL, respectively; P=0.034). Patients who experienced a hemoglobin drop post-operatively had 2.03 times greater odds (95% confidence interval, 1.06-4.23; P=0.040) of having a stroke than those whose hemoglobin levels were stable. Early postoperative stroke was also associated with an increase in length of hospital stay (P<0.001), discharge to a rehabilitation facility (P=0.014), and worse modified Rankin scale at 1 month (P=0.001).

CONCLUSION

This study found a significant association between hemoglobin drop and early postoperative stroke following revascularization surgery in adult patients with Moyamoya disease. Based on our findings, it may be prudent to avoid hemoglobin drops in Moyamoya patients undergoing surgical revascularization.

Should individual timeline and serial CT/MRI panels of all patients be presented in acute brain insult cohorts? A pilot study of 45 patients with decompressive craniectomy after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

PURPOSE

Our review of acute brain insult articles indicated that the patients' individual (i) timeline panels with the defined time points since the emergency call and (ii) serial brain CT/MRI slice panels through the neurointensive care until death or final brain tissue outcome at 12 months or later are not presented.

METHODS

We retrospectively constructed such panels for the 45 aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) patients with a secondary decompressive craniectomy (DC) after the acute admission to neurointensive care at Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) from a defined population from 2005 to 2018. The patients were indicated by numbers (1.-45.) in the pseudonymized panels, tables, results, and discussion. The timelines contained up to ten defined time points on a logarithmic time axis until death ([Formula: see text]; 56%) or 3 years ([Formula: see text]; 44%). The brain CT/MRI panels contained a representative slice from the following time points: SAH diagnosis, after aneurysm closure, after DC, at about 12 months (20 survivors).

RESULTS

The timelines indicated re-bleeds and allowed to compare the times elapsed between any two time points, in terms of workflow swiftness. The serial CT/MRI slices illustrated the presence and course of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), perihematomal edema, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), hydrocephalus, delayed brain injury, and, in the 20 (44%) survivors, the brain tissue outcome.

CONCLUSIONS

The pseudonymized timeline panels and serial brain imaging panels, indicating the patients by numbers, allowed the presentation and comparison of individual clinical courses. An obvious application would be the quality control in acute or elective medicine for timely and equal access to clinical care.

Intracranial Pressure Monitoring and Management in Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage is a medical condition that can lead to intracranial hypertension, negatively impacting patients' outcomes. This review article explores the underlying pathophysiology that causes increased intracranial pressure (ICP) during hospitalization. Hydrocephalus, brain swelling, and intracranial hematoma could produce an ICP rise. Although cerebrospinal fluid withdrawal via an external ventricular drain is commonly used, ICP monitoring is not always consistently practiced. Indications for ICP monitoring include neurological deterioration, hydrocephalus, brain swelling, intracranial masses, and the need for cerebrospinal fluid drainage. This review emphasizes the importance of ICP monitoring and presents findings from the Synapse-ICU study, which supports a correlation between ICP monitoring and treatment with better patient outcomes. The review also discusses various therapeutic strategies for managing increased ICP and identifies potential areas for future research.

Impact of early percutaneous dilatative tracheostomy in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage on main cerebral, hemodynamic, and respiratory variables: A prospective observational study

Introduction

Patients with poor-grade subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) often require prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation due to prolonged time to obtain neurological recovery. Impairment of consciousness and airway protective mechanisms usually require tracheostomy during the ICU stay to facilitate weaning from sedation, promote neurological assessment, and reduce mechanical ventilation (MV) duration and associated complications. Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) is the technique of choice for performing a tracheostomy. However, it could be associated with particular risks in neurocritical care patients, potentially increasing the risk of secondary brain damage.

Methods

We conducted a single-center, prospective, observational study aimed to assess PDT-associated variations in main cerebral, hemodynamic, and respiratory variables, the occurrence of tracheostomy-related complications, and their relationship with outcomes in adult patients with SAH admitted to the ICU of a neurosurgery/neurocritical care hub center after aneurysm control through clipping or coiling and undergoing early PDT.

Results

We observed a temporary increase in ICP during early PDT; this increase was statistically significant in patients presenting with higher therapy intensity level (TIL) at the time of the procedural. The episodes of intracranial hypertension were brief, and appeared mainly due to the activation of cerebral autoregulatory mechanisms in patients with impaired compensatory mechanisms and compliance.

Discussion

The low number of observed complications might be related to our organizational strategy, all based on a dedicated "tracheo-team" implementing both PDT following a strictly defined protocol and accurate follow-up.

Nursing Management of Temperature in a Patient with Stroke

Fever is common in patients with stroke and is associated with worse outcomes. Studies in brain injury informed interventions commonly termed therapeutic temperature management (TTM) to improve the monitoring and management of fever. While the role and benefit of TTM in stroke patients has not been well studied, the nurse and healthcare team must extrapolate existing data to determine how to best monitor and apply TTM after stroke. Nurses should be knowledgeable about interventions to monitor and manage complications of TTM (eg, shivering), the studies underway to quantify the impact of fever treatment and emerging technology expected to improve TTM.

More is less: Effect of ICF-based early progressive mobilization on severe aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in the NICU

Introduction

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a type of stroke that occurs due to a ruptured intracranial aneurysm. Although advanced therapies have been applied to treat aSAH, patients still suffer from functional impairment leading to prolonged stays in the NICU. The effect of early progressive mobilization as an intervention implemented in the ICU setting for critically ill patients remains unclear.

Methods

This retrospective study evaluated ICF-based early progressive mobilization's validity, safety, and feasibility in severe aSAH patients. Sixty-eight patients with aSAH with Hunt-Hess grades III-IV were included. They were divided into two groups-progressive mobilization and passive movement. Patients in the progressive mobilization group received progressive ICF-based mobilization intervention, and those in the passive movement group received passive joint movement training. The incidence of pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of NICU stay, and incidence of deep vein thrombosis were evaluated for validity. In contrast, the incidence of cerebral vasospasm, abnormally high ICP, and other safety events were assessed for safety. We also described the feasibility of the early mobilization initiation time and the rate of participation at each level for patients in the progressive mobilization group.

Results

The results showed that the incidence of pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation, and length of NICU stay were significantly lower among patients in the progressive mobilization group than in the passive movement group (P = 0.031, P = 0.004, P = 0.012), but the incidence of deep vein thrombosis did not significantly differ between the two groups. Regarding safety, patients in the progressive mobilization group had a lower incidence of cerebral vasospasm than those in the passive movement group. Considering the effect of an external ventricular drain on cerebral vasospasm (P = 0.015), we further analyzed those patients in the progressive mobilization group who had a lower incidence of cerebral vasospasm in patients who did not have an external ventricular drain (P = 0.011). Although we found 2 events of abnormally increased intracranial pressure in the progressive mobilization group, there was no abnormal decrease in cerebral perfusion pressure in the 2 events. In addition, among other safety events, there was no difference in the occurrence of adverse events between the two groups (P = 0.073), but the number of potential adverse events was higher in the progressive mobilization group (P = 0.001). Regarding feasibility, patients in the progressive mobilization group were commonly initiated 72 h after admission to the NICU, and 47.06% were in the third level of the mobilization protocol.

Discussion

We conclude that the ICF-based early progressive mobilization protocol is an effective and feasible intervention tool. For validity, more mobilization interventions might lead to less pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation and length of stay for patients with severe aSAH in the NICU, Moreover, it is necessary to pay attention over potential adverse events (especially line problems), although we did not find serious safety events.

Regional Variability in the Care and Outcomes of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Patients in the United States

Background and Objectives

Regional variability in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) care is reported in physician surveys. We aimed to describe variability in SAH care using patient-level data and identify factors impacting hospital outcomes and regional variability in outcomes.

Methods

A retrospective multi-center cross-sectional cohort study of consecutive non-traumatic SAH patients in the Vizient Clinical Data Base, between January 1st, 2009 and December 30th, 2018 was performed. Participating hospitals were divided into US regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, West. Regional demographics, co-morbidities, severity-of-illness, complications, interventions and discharge outcomes were compared. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors independently associated with primary outcomes: hospital mortality and poor discharge outcome. Poor discharge outcome was defined by the Nationwide Inpatient Sample-SAH Outcome Measure, an externally-validated outcome measure combining death, discharge disposition, tracheostomy and/or gastrostomy. Regional variability in the associations between care and outcomes were assessed by introducing an interaction term for US region into the models.

Results

Of 109,034 patients included, 24.3% were from Northeast, 24.9% Midwest, 34.9% South, 15.9% West. Mean (SD) age was 58.6 (15.6) years and 64,245 (58.9%) were female. In-hospital mortality occurred in 21,991 (20.2%) and 44,159 (40.5%) had poor discharge outcome. There was significant variability in severity-of-illness, co-morbidities, complications and interventions across US regions. Notable findings were higher prevalence of surgical clipping (18.8 vs. 11.6%), delayed cerebral ischemia (4.3 vs. 3.1%), seizures (16.5 vs. 14.8%), infections (18 vs. 14.7%), length of stay (mean [SD] days; 15.7 [19.2] vs. 14.1 [16.7]) and health-care direct costs (mean [SD] USD; 80,379 [98,999]. vs. 58,264 [74,430]) in the West when compared to other regions (all p < 0.0001). Variability in care was also associated with modest variability in hospital mortality and discharge outcome. Aneurysm repair, nimodipine use, later admission-year, endovascular rescue therapies reduced the odds for poor outcome. Age, severity-of-illness, co-morbidities, hospital complications, and vasopressor use increased those odds (c-statistic; mortality: 0.77; discharge outcome: 0.81). Regional interaction effect was significant for admission severity-of-illness, aneurysm-repair and nimodipine-use.

Discussion

Multiple hospital-care factors impact SAH outcomes and significant variability in hospital-care and modest variability in discharge-outcomes exists across the US. Variability in SAH-severity, nimodipine-use and aneurysm-repair may drive variability in outcomes.

Roles of Rufy3 in experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced early brain injury via accelerating neuronal axon repair and synaptic plasticity

RUN and FYVE domain-containing 3 (Rufy3) is a well-known adapter protein of a small GTPase protein family and is bound to the activated Ras family protein to maintain neuronal polarity. However, in experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), the role of Rufy3 has not been investigated. Consequently, we aimed to investigate the potential role of Rufy3 in an in vivo model of SAH-induced early brain injury (EBI). In addition, we investigated the relevant brain-protective mechanisms. Oxyhemoglobin (OxyHb) stimulation of cultured primary neurons simulated vitro SAH condition. The SAH rat model was induced by infusing autologous blood into the optic chiasma pool and treating the rats with lentivirus-negative control 1 (LV-NC1), lentivirus-Rufy3 shRNA (LV-shRNA), lentivirus-negative control 2 (LV-NC2), lentivirus-Rufy3 (LV-Rufy3), or 8-pCPT-2′-O-Me-cAMP (8p-CPT) (Rap1 agonist). In experiment one, we found that the protein level of Rufy3 decreased and neuronal axon injury in the injured neurons but was rectified by LV-Rufy3 treatment. In experiment two, mRNA and protein levels of Rufy3 were downregulated in brain tissue and reached the lowest level at 24 h after SAH. In addition, the expression of Myelin Basic Protein was downregulated and that of anti-hypophosphorylated neurofilament H (N52) was upregulated after SAH. In experiments three and four, Rufy3 overexpression (LV-Rufy3) increased the interactions between Rufy3 and Rap1, the level of Rap1-GTP, and the ratio of Rap1-GTP/total GTP. In addition, LV-Rufy3 treatment inhibited axon injury and accelerated axon repair by activating the Rap1/Arap3/Rho/Fascin signaling pathway accompanied by upregulated protein expression levels of ARAP3, Rho, Fascin, and Facin. LV-Rufy3 also enhanced synaptic plasticity by activating the Rap1/MEK/ERK/synapsin I signaling pathway accompanied by upregulated protein expression levels of ERK1, p-ERK1, MEK1, p-MEK1, synaspin I, and p-synaspin I. Moreover, LV-Rufy3 also alleviated brain damage indicators, including cortical neuronal cell apoptosis and degeneration, brain edema, and cognitive impairment after SAH. However, the downregulation of Rufy3 had the opposite effect and aggravated EBI induced by SAH. Notably, the combined application of LV-Rufy3 and 8p-CPT showed a significant synergistic effect on the aforementioned parameters. Our findings suggest that enhanced Rufy3 expression may reduce EBI by inhibiting axon injury and promoting neuronal axon repair and synaptic plasticity after SAH.

Neurocritical care management of poor-grade subarachnoid hemorrhage: Unjustified nihilism to reasonable optimism

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Historically, overall outcomes for patients with high-grade subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) have been poor. Generally, between physicians, either reluctance to treat, or selectivity in treating such patients has been the paradigm. Recent studies have shown that early and aggressive care leads to significant improvement in survival rates and favorable outcomes of grade V SAH patients. With advancements in both neurocritical care and end-of-life care, non-treatment or selective treatment of grade V SAH patients is rarely justified. Current paradigm shifts towards early and aggressive care in such cases may lead to improved outcomes for many more patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We performed a detailed review of the current literature regarding neurointensive management strategies in high-grade SAH, discussing multiple aspects. We discussed the neurointensive care management protocols for grade V SAH patients.

RESULTS

Acutely, intracranial pressure control is of utmost importance with external ventricular drain placement, sedation, optimization of cerebral perfusion pressure, osmotherapy and hyperventilation, as well as cardiopulmonary support through management of hypotension and hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS

Advancements of care in SAH patients make it unethical to deny treatment to poor Hunt and Hess grade patients. Early and aggressive treatment results in a significant improvement in survival rate and favorable outcome in such patients.

Continuous intra-arterial nimodipine infusion as rescue treatment of severe refractory cerebral vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage

Severe refractory cerebral vasospasm (CV) is a major cause of disability and death in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). One rescue therapy in selected patients is intra-arterial nimodipine, either given as a single shot or as continuous infusion. To evaluate treatment efficacy, we analyzed outcome factors such as the incidence of craniectomy, ventriculo-peritonial (VP) shunting, and tracheotomy after intra-arterial nimodipine infusion. We retrospectively analyzed the rates of cerebral infarction, decompressive craniectomy, VP shunting, and tracheotomy in patients with severe CV after SAH. Three different patient groups were compared: group 1 had only been treated with oral nimodipine and hypervolemic hypertensive therapy (HHT) (2006-2010), group 2 with a single shot of intra-arterial nimodipine (SSN) in addition to oral conservative treatment (2006-2010), and group 3 with continuous intra-arterial nimodipine (CIAN) (2011-2017). The incidence of cerebral infarction was significantly lower in CIAN group (p = 0.005) than in conservative and SSN group. The indication for consecutive decompressive craniectomy was significantly lower in CIAN group in comparison with the conservative group (p = 0.018). The rates of VP shunting and tracheotomy were significantly higher in the CIAN group than in the conservative group (p = 0.028 for VP, and p = 0.003 for tracheotomy). The significantly lower rate of craniectomy in the CIAN group was most probably attributable to the significantly lower rate of CV-induced infarction. The higher rate of tracheotomy reflects more extensive sedation and the need of longer stays on the intensive care unit. Thus, the effect on long-term neurological outcome and quality of life has to be evaluated separately.

Hyperventilation in neurological patients: from physiology to outcome evidence

Hyperventilation is commonly used in neurological patients to decrease elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) or relax a tense brain. However, the potentially deleterious effects of hyperventilation may limit its clinical application. The aim of this review is to summarize the physiological and outcome evidence related to hyperventilation in neurological patients.