To make the diagnosis of brain death the examiner must be able recognise responses that do not require brain function; stimulus-provoked movements should be termed reflexes and spontaneous movements termed automatisms; brain death-associated automatisms may be present in up to 50% of brain death cases
Acute Aortic Dissection: the most common catastrophe of the aorta (3:100,000); 3 times more common than abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture
OVERVIEW Involves these steps: Early identification Establish rapport with family early Non-coercive discussion with family regarding opportunity to donate Initiate tissue typing, organ function testing and viral screening Maintain extra-cerebral physiological stability Facilitate family time at the bedside Ensure aftercare…
This page is under construction OVERVIEW “Obviously, except under momentary conditions the venous return and the cardiac output must be equal.” — Arthur Guyton STARLING’S LAW By raising or lowering an artificial venous reservoir, Starling showed that increased right atrial…
This page is under construction OVERVIEW Cardiorenal syndromes (CRS) are disorders of the heart and kidneys whereby acute or long-term dysfunction in one organ may induce acute or long-term dysfunction of the other CRS is characterised by the triad of…
Brain death is the irreversible loss of all functions of the brain, including the brainstem. The three essential findings in brain death are coma (unresponsiveness), absence of brainstem reflexes, and apnoea
Avoiding Nosocomial Dysthanasia and Promoting Eleothanasia
Troponin abnormality is set at the 99th percentile in the healthy population, As the tests become more and more sensitive, the absolute cutoff value for “abnormal” has become lower and lower and the test has become less specific for myocardial infarction
Electrical Storm; 3 or more sustained episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation (VF), or appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) shocks during a 24-hour period
Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) Syndrome is a combination of the presence of a congenital accessory pathway and episodes of tachyarrhythmia.
ICU Acquired Weakness (ICUAW) includes critical illness myopathy (CIM); critical illness polyneuropathy (CIP), or a mixture of both (myopathy is typically predominant); very common in the mechanically ventilated (25-60% in those mechanically ventilated for > 7 days)
TYPES Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) Wide complex SVT Accelerated idioventricular rhythm Ventricular Fibrillation (VF) VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA see separate document WIDE COMPLEX SVT see VT document for Brugada algorithm ACCELERATED IDIOVENTRICULAR RHYTHM (AIVR) encountered in an inferior AMI often causes haemodynamic compromise…