Patients with neurological illnesses are distinct from other kinds of patients.
Because their problem involves their nervous system, they are more prone to develop certain kinds of problems.
Stasis simply means that you arent moving much.
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Thats why airplanes encourage passengers to get up now and then during long flights and walk around the cabin.
Staying still too long could cause blood clots to form in the veins of your legs.
Patients in neurological ICUs are especially prone to developing blood clots.
Due to the nature of their illness, people who are paralyzed or in acomado not move.
Furthermore, some stroke victims had their ischemic stroke because they have blood that is prone to forming clots.
Victims of head trauma may have suffered additional damage to blood vessel walls.
For example, subarachnoid hemorrhage has been associated with a very high risk of deep vein thrombosis.
Blood clots are usually prevented by giving blood thinners like heparin, but these drugs can worsen bleeding.
How to manage these competing risks can be a tough decision.
The most important of these things is airway.
Unless the passages that allow us to breathe are open, nothing else matters.
Even a heartbeat is often of less immediate importance.
Most of us do little things every hour to ensure our airways remain open.
We sigh on occasion to keep small regions of our lungs from collapsing.
If we feel a tickle at the back of our throat, we cough.
Someone in a coma may not do any of these things either.
Infection
Intensive care units are where the sickest of sick people are cared for.
That also means that ICUs are frequently where the toughest and most dangerous bacteria can be found.
However, no precaution works one hundred percent of the time, and sometimes infections spread despite these precautions.
For this reason, medical staff watches patients closely for signs of infection.
Unfortunately, it is also one of the most common.
As many as 80% of intubated patients in ICUs experience this condition.
The person becomes confused about where they are, what time it is, and what is going on.
They may not recognize friends or family.
They may hallucinate, or become paranoid.
Subclinical Status Epilepticus
When most people think of a seizure, they picture someone violently shaking.
Nevertheless, these people could benefit from proper medication.
Dysautonomia
The autonomic nervous system is unconscious and often underappreciated.
The problems listed above are often found in many types of different diseases that bring someone to aneurological ICU.
For this reason, neuro-ICUs have proven to be valuable in treating people with serious neurological illnesses.
