On a not infrequent basis we will come across patients in hospital who have a CT head scan that appears to show an unsurvivable event. Having sourced opinion from our neurosurgical and neurology colleagues we may well be given the advice to withdraw care for the patient.

It has become increasingly recognised that prognosticating in such patients at an early stage is extremely difficult with numerous cases surviving what was initially thought to be an unsurvivable event, with a good neurological outcome.

This joint document from the Intensive Care Society, Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Neuro Anaesthesia and Critical Care Society of Great Britain & Ireland and the Welsh Intensive Care Society gives new guidance for such perceived devastating brain injuries and will challenge many peoples thinking on the topic with additional questions being asked on resource utilisation.

In this podcast Caroline Leech, EM and PHEM Consultant in Coventry, discusses the guidelines and the implications they hold for our practice.

As always make sure you read the document yourself, we would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Simon & Caroline

References

Management of Perceived Devastating Brain Injury After Hospital Admission; A consensus statement 

A case for stopping the early withdrawal of life sustainingtherapies in patients with devastating brain injuries. Manara AR. J Intensive Care Soc. 2016