Neurologic Complications of Critical Illness Book

Consults in the Intensive Care Unit to evaluate and manage acute neurological clinical problems are usually of considerable complexity and are the most challenging ones. This single authored monograph is the standard reference on neurological complications of critically ill patients and has been the first and only book of its kind. This comprehensive book will assist the neurologist to recognize and treat complex neurological complications in critically ill patients admitted to medical, surgical, trauma, and transplant intensive care units. Every chapter provides a representative selection of the state of the art in the intensive care unit, necessary for an understanding of critical care medicine.

It offers practical advice on how to best deal wtih coma after cardiopulmonary resuscitation, failure to awaken after surgery, delirium, new onset seizures, generalized weakness, acute paraplegia, movement disorders, and many other manifestations of a neurologic emergency. Other topics include neurologic complications after organ transplantation, spinal cord injury after thoracoabdominal surgery, neurologic complications of invasive procedures and devices, complications from cardiac surgery, traumatic brain, spine, and peripheral nerve injury, and environmental injuries such as hypothermia and near drowning. This book also addresses end of life care in the intensive care unit and the responsibilities of the consulting neurologist.

This third edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded with new chapters on viral infectious outbreaks (West Nile and tick-borne encephalitis), intoxication, poisoning, and chemical and biowarfare. The book closes with a new chapter that provides a practical model on how to best approach these complex patients and five common scenarios are discussed. This third edition adds more than 100 new figures, tables and helpful maangement algorithms, and over 500 new references. All major topics are discussed systematically, thoroughly, and logically. This book is a key practical text for neurologists, intensivists, trauma surgeons, transplant surgeons, and trainees, but also is essential for the critical care nursing staff.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:David J. Dries, MD(University of Minnesota Medical School)
Description:This is the third edition of a work intended to bridge the gap between neurologists, neurointensivists, and clinicians outside of the neuroscience realm working in the critical care setting.
Purpose:Neurologic aspects of critical illness including surgical, environmental, and organ dysfunction are presented.
Audience:Senior practitioners in neuroscience, critical care medicine, and specialties dealing with patients with neurologic problems are an appropriate audience for this work, which is authored by an authority in critical care neurology.
Features:General clinical problems are described first, such as evaluation of coma, seizures, generalized weakness, and manifestations of drug use seen in intensive care. The second and largest group of chapters describes neurologic complications of surgical, medical, and environmental problems, among them infections, cardiac arrest, organ failure, cardiovascular surgery, and trauma. Information on toxins and terrorism is also presented. The three final chapters discuss outcome of nervous system insults, the neurologist as consultant, and end-of-life care. Chapters are clearly written and detailed. Good use is made of tables, black-and-white illustrations, and line drawings. A set of color plates, which complement the text well, introduces the book. Each chapter has an extensive reference list from primary literature dating to within one year of publication. The table of contents identifies chapters and their subheadings, while the index includes separate citations for figures and tables.
Assessment:This is an important work, particularly for intensivists providing care for patients with neurologic conditions.