Acute Encephalopathy & the Unresponsive ICU Patient

The Zombies are coming!! Just kidding… well, kind of – they may already be here…  Dr. Sam Wood is a brilliant EM/IM/CC trained physician who came all the down to Baltimore from Maine Medical Center to try to break down the expansive differential for the unresponsive ICU patient.  During her talk, Dr. Wood makes a pretty solid case that a number of patients who experience prolonged delirium in the ICU are the direct results of the medications and sedative agents we are using on a daily basis.  If you want to learn more about how to approach these diagnostic dilemmas, as well as how to NOT turn your patient into a zombie, you have to listen to this lecture.

Wood – Encephalopathy & the Unresponsive ICU Patient.mp3

Pearls

• Stop withholding glucose prior to thiamine administration in the altered patient.  There is minimal evidence that giving glucose before thiamine will precipitate a Wernicke’s encephalopathy.
• Sedation with benzodiazepines is highly associated with ICU delirium for DAYS after cessation of treatment.  Midazolam and diazepam infusions are the frequent causes of prolonged delirium.
• Consider an EEG in the comatose patient who is not waking up.  Literature estimates that approximately 8-10% are actually having non-convulsive status epilepticus!
• Bonus Pearl: Zombies exist –Even in the PubMed literature!!