Eva-Maria Hauer, David Stark, Dimitre Staykov, Tobias Steigleder, Stefan Schwab, Juergen Bardutzky
OBJECTIVE: To study the safety and the effects of early continuous hypertonic saline infusion in patients with cerebral edema and underlying cerebrovascular disease. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTING: University medical center. PATIENTS: Neurologic intensive care unit population with mixed cerebrovascular diseases. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Between May 2008 and December 2009, 100 patients with severe intracerebral hemorrhage, cerebral ischemia, or aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and signs of intracranial hypertension received within ≤72 hrs after symptom onset a continuous infusion of hypertonic saline (3%, target sodium 145-155 mmol/L, target osmolality 310-320 mOsm/kg) over 13 (4-23) days...
July 2011: Critical Care Medicine