Neurology
Expert perspectives on neurological conditions, stroke management, movement disorders, and neuromuscular disease.
Recent Discussions
How do stroke-risk considerations affect your use of atypical antipsychotics for patients with dementia?
Antipsychotics carry a number of risks, including a warning of sudden death in elderly demented patients. If nothing else works for a behavioral problem, you have to use an antipsychotic. Also, for frank paranoia, which is not only causing distress to parents but also to the environment, treatment w...
How do you decide when to pursue malignancy workup for patients with cryptogenic stroke?
Agree with above. I would also pursue malignancy work-up in this scenario as well: currently on anticoagulation (whether for afib or another medical reason) and has an ischemic stroke on top of that.
What is your approach to management of patients with cerebral edema in the setting of hypoxic-ischemic injury?
Depends on the clinical status of the patient. Obviously, if the neurological exam is modestly good, i.e., purposeful movement or better, then follow the exam for signs of worsening edema. If the exam is not so good (flexion or less), we tend to use continuous EEG and serial imaging to monitor. As f...
Is there a role for routine EEG in the diagnostic evaluation of critically ill comatose patients or should these patients always receive long-term continuous video EEG monitoring?
We looked into this and found that in a non-comatose patient with no history of clinical seizures, the lack of epileptiform abnormalities on initial 30 minutes of EEG recording is associated with <5% risk for electrographic seizures suggesting that a routine EEG can be sufficient in that group (Stru...
Do you think repeated routine EEG is sufficient for cardiac arrest patients or should we be always using continuous EEG?
For most patients with cardiac arrest, cEEG has not been shown to offer improved outcomes over serial routine EEGs. In cases where there are EEG patterns that suggest seizures may be occurring, such as rhythmic or periodic patterns other than low-frequency GPDs, or repetitive evolving patterns, we t...
Do you routinely use pupillometry for serial neurologic examinations in the ICU, especially for patients at risk for transtentorial herniation?
We frequently do pupillometry assessments on patients at high risk of ICP crisis. It gets rid of observer subjectivity as it is often an issue in ICUs. We have a protocol with the following indications for q1h pupillary assessments. It is not based on particular guidelines but serves as a good marke...
Do you titrate anti-seizure medication doses in the setting of high or low serum drug levels if patients remain seizure free?
The short answer is "no", especially in the setting of high levels, if there are no side effects reported, and other appropriate surveillance labs look good (such as CBC and LFTs for VPA). The only case where I might increase the dose slightly would be for a below-therapeutic range level in a seizur...
When do you suspect an autoimmune encephalitis in a child or adolescent with new-onset psychosis?
Given the rarity of true childhood schizophrenia, autoimmune encephalitis, and other medical etiologies should be considered in any patient presenting with new-onset psychosis prior to age 13. In adolescents, sudden onset of symptoms, absence of family history, lack of prodrome, and other atypical p...
How do you adjust chronic outpatient steroid therapy when myasthenia gravis patients are admitted for crisis?
1.) It is important to figure out what triggered the crisis. If it was triggered by a recent, active infection (especially bacterial), it is not a good idea to increase the steroid dose. I would actually attempt to taper the prednisone slowly after IVIG or PLEX is initiated for treatment of the MG c...
How do you counsel patients with GCA on the benefits of steroids who have already experienced vision loss?
I first tell the patient they are at considerable risk for further visual loss in the same eye or the other eye over the next 1-2 weeks. I also let them know that, even though their risk of visual loss has been reduced, their best option for preventing further visual loss is immediately starting hig...