Year in review 2011: Critical Care - neurocritical care

Contributions from the neurosciences to Critical Care in 2011 covered an array of topics. We learned about potential biomarkers for, and the effect of cerebral oxygen metabolism on, delirium, in addition to treatment of the latter. A group of investigators studied surface cooling in healthy awake volunteers, and incidence of infection associated with therapeutic hypothermia. The effects of statin and erythropoietin on stroke were revisited, and the role of adhesion molecule in the inflammatory reaction accompanying intracerebral hemorrhage was scrutinized. Biomarkers in subarachnoid hemorrhage and their relationship to vasospasm and outcome, and effect of daylight on outcome in this patient population, as well as a new meta-analysis of statin therapy were among the research in subarachnoid hemorrhage. Moreover, 2011 witnessed the publication of a multidisciplinary consensus conference's recommendations on the critical care management of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Results of studies regarding the diagnosis and vascular complications of meningitis were reported. Traumatic brain injury received its share of articles addressing therapy with hypertonic saline and surgical decompression, the development of coagulopathy, and biomarkers to help with prognostication. Finally, research on the treatment of Guillain-Barre syndrome in children, prediction of long-term need of ventilatory support, and pathophysiology of critical illness polyneuropathy and myopathy were reported.