ABSTRACT
Central nervous system (CNS) symptoms frequently arise in patients in an inten-
sive care unit (ICU) setting. Many of these patients are eventually diagnosed with
encephalopathy resulting from delirium, traumatic brain injury, CNS infection,
CNS tumor, hepatic failure, uremia, and intoxications (1,2). For the most part,
these are systemic illnesses that have neurologic manifestations. The approach
to these neurologic problems is to treat the underlying systemic disease. In this
chapter, we will focus on the clinical presentation, diagnostic work up, and treat-
ment of the more common neurologic problems arising in the ICU that arise
from disorders that primarily affect the CNS: ischemic stroke, hypoxic-ischemic
injury, seizures, status epilepticus, and brain death.
