Published in:
30-09-2022 | Electroencephalography | Invited Commentary
Dynamic Variables of Electroencephalography may be a Window into Brain Responsiveness
Author:
Paul Vespa
Published in:
Neurocritical Care
|
Issue 3/2022
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Excerpt
Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary support in the form of venoarterial or venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has become increasingly important and increasingly used in critical care in the last few years [
1]. ECMO can be life-saving and has transformed the landscape of critical illness in a variety of conditions, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiac failure, cardiac arrest, and SARS-CoV-2 infections, to name just a few. The neurocritical care of the comatose ECMO patient remains understudied and has not been the subject of prospective randomized studies, but a number of publications have demonstrated the occurrence of a variety of acute brain injuries (ABIs) during ECMO, such as ischemic stroke, brain hemorrhage, seizures, cerebral air embolism, delirium, and anoxic brain injury. ABIs occur in 7–20% of adults and neonates on ECMO [
2‐
4] and in around 5.9% of patients with COVID-19 on ECMO [
5]. Detection of these ABIs remains challenging, but a number of studies have suggested that the use of noninvasive brain monitoring techniques, such as continuous electroencephalography (EEG), may be useful in detecting ABIs [
6]. …