It is unclear if avoiding hyperglycemia during intensive care after acute brain injury improves morbidity, mortality, and neurologic outcome. This prospective randomized trial tested whether intensive insulin therapy affected infection rates, vasospasm, mortality, or long-term neurologic outcome in subarachnoid hemorrhage patients during their intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Comparison was made against conventional insulin therapy using a randomized trial design. The primary outcome measure was infection rate until the fourteenth postoperative day in the ICU or until patient discharge. Secondary end points were the incidence of vasospasm until the fourteenth postoperative day in the ICU or until patient discharge, and neurologic outcome and mortality at 6 months follow-up. A total of 78 patients were prospectively enrolled and randomly assigned either to conventional insulin therapy or to intensive insulin therapy (38 and 40 patients, respectively). The infection rate during the study was significantly higher in patients who received conventional insulin therapy than in patients who received intensive insulin therapy (42% vs. 27%; P<0.001). The incidence of vasospasm during the study was also similar in conventional and intensive therapy groups (31.5% vs. 27.6% in the conventional and intensive insulin therapy groups; P=0.9). Overall mortality rates at 6 months were similar in the 2 groups (18% vs.15%; P=0.9), as was the neurologic outcome at 6 months [modified Rankin score >3 in 22/38 patients (57.8%) in the conventional therapy group vs. 21/40 patients (52.5%) in the intensive insulin therapy group; P=0.7]. Intensive insulin therapy in patients with acute subarachnoid hemorrhage admitted to a postoperative neurosurgical ICU after surgical clipping of intracranial aneurysms decreases infection rates. The benefit of strict glycemic control on postoperative vasospasm, neurologic outcome, and mortality rates does not seem to be affected by intensive insulin therapy.
Intensive insulin therapy significantly increases the risk of hypoglycemic episodes. Even though patients receiving intensive insulin therapy have shorter ICU stays and infection rates similar to those receiving conventional insulin therapy, both groups have similar follow-up mortality and neurologic outcome. Hence if intensive insulin therapy is to be used, great effort must be taken to avoid hypoglycemia.
Intensive insulin therapy in patients admitted to a postoperative neurosurgical ICU after brain surgery is associated with iatrogenic hypoglycemia, but it can also reduce the infection rate and shorten the ICU stay.
Balanced anesthesia with sevoflurane-fentanyl has been widely accepted as anesthetic management for neurosurgery. Propofol-remifentanil regimen has been successfully used in various surgical settings, but a comprehensive comparison of sevoflurane-fentanyl and propofol-remifentanil anesthesia in patients undergoing craniotomy for supratentorial intracranial surgery has not yet been done. The aim of this prospective, randomized, open-label clinical trial was to compare clinical properties of sevoflurane-fentanyl with propofol-remifentanil anesthesia in patients undergoing supratentorial intracranial surgery. The primary endpoint was to compare early postoperative recovery and cognitive functions within the two groups; we also evaluated hemodynamic events, vomiting, shivering, and pain. One hundred twenty patients (64 males; age 15-75 years) were randomized to either total intravenous anesthesia (group T) or sevoflurane anesthesia (group S). Emergence and extubation times and cognitive function (Short Orientation Memory Concentration Test [SOMCT]) were compared in the two groups. Brain swelling, incidence of hypotensive and hypertensive episodes, postoperative vomiting, shivering, and pain were also analyzed. The mean emergence time (12.2 +/- 4.9 minutes for group S versus 12.3 +/- 6.1 minutes for group T; P = 0.92) and extubation time (18.2 +/- 2.3 minutes for group S versus 18.3 +/- 2.1 minutes for group T; P = 0.80) were similar in the two groups. Average SOMCT scores, both 15 minutes after extubation (25.6 +/- 4.9 in group S versus 23.9 +/- 7.5 in group T; P = 0.14) and 45 minutes after extubation (27.3 +/- 2.2 in group S versus 26.0 +/- 5.1 in group T; P = 0.07) were also comparable. Brain swelling was present in seven and five patients in groups S and T, respectively (P = 0.76). Hypotension was present in 12% (group S) and 28% (group T) of patients (P = 0.02). Hypertension was present in 17% of patients in group S and 40% of patients in group T (P = 0.0046). Shivering was present in 18% and 25% of patients in groups T and S (P = 0.37). Our study demonstrates that there is no patient benefit of using total intravenous anesthesia with an ultra-short-acting opioid over the conventional balanced volatile technique in terms of recovery and cognitive functions.
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