Critical Medical Illness and the Nervous System

Nervous system tissues have high metabolic demands and other unique vulnerabilities that place them at high risk of injury in the context of critical medical illness. This article describes the neurologic complications that are commonly encountered in patients who are critically ill from medical diseases and presents strategies for their diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Chronic neurologic disability is common after critical medical illness and is a major factor in the quality of life for survivors of critical illness. Studies that carefully assessed groups of patients with general critical illness have identified a substantial rate of covert seizures, brain infarcts, muscle wasting, peripheral nerve injuries, and other neurologic sequelae that are strong predictors of poor neurologic outcomes. As the population ages and intensive care survivorship increases, critical illness-related neurologic impairments represent a large and growing proportion of the overall burden of neurologic disease.

Improving critical illness outcomes requires identifying and managing the underlying cause of comorbid neurologic symptoms.