ABSTRACT
Introduction The primary goal of clinical management in neurocritical care is to prevent/ minimize secondary brain injury after an acute neurological event. In broad terms, this secondary injury may result from the natural history or progression of the primary event, hypoxia or hypotension resulting in brain ischemia, and cerebral edema, hydrocephalus, or intracranial hypertension. Given the topics that have been covered in the chapters on issues in acute management and preventions of complications with regard to airway and blood pressure management and treatment of infections and other hospital complications, we focus this chapter on an overview of critical care management of cerebral edema, hydrocephalus, and intracranial hypertension in acute ischemic stroke (AIS), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Further, we provide a brief review of the different roles and positions required for neurocritical care for comprehensive stroke center (CSC) certification by the Joint Commission (JC) and Det Norske Veritas (DNV).
