Neuroanaesthesia & neurocritical care
Monitoring the incidence of hypotension and hypoxemia as systemic secondary insults in patients with catastrophic brain injury evolving to brain death. A prospective observational pilot study
Authors' conclusion
In patients with catastrophic brain injury, the incidence of hypotension remains the highest among systemic secondary insults in patients progressing to brain death and cardiac death.
Study context
- Population
- Adult patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) with catastrophic brain injury and Glasgow coma scale ≤5, potentially evolving to brain death, University Hospital of Messina, Italypatients recruited prospectively
- Participants
- 24 patients
- Exposure
- Patients who progressed to brain death or who died in ICU from cardiac complications compared with patients alive at discharge
- Progressed to brain deathn = 9
- Died in ICU from cardiac complicationsn = 7
- Alive at dischargen = 8
- Outcome
- Timing of secondary insults
- Follow-up
- Day 3 and 4
Methodological detailsdescriptive, hypothesis generating, part of a larger ongoing multi-centre study
- Descriptive
- Hypothesis generating
- Part of a larger ongoing multi-centre study
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Day 3 and 4 demonstrated the largest number of secondary insults which were mainly hypotension
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Hypotensive burden
- More severe and sustained hypotensive burden in patients who progressed to brain death or died in ICU from cardiac complications compared with patients alive at discharge
Monitoring duration
- Patient monitoring data ranged from
- 8-3000 hours (0.3-125 days)
Admission diagnoses
- Intracerebral haemorrhage
- N= 13
- TBI
- N=4
- SAH
- N=3
- Ischaemic stroke
- N=3
- Hypoxic encephalopathy
- N=1
Study conduct
- Descriptive study proved useful for identifying an optimal window for tracking insults and piloting key summary measures and visualisations for a larger multi-centre study
Original publication
Monitoring the incidence of hypotension and hypoxemia as systemic secondary insults in patients with catastrophic brain injury evolving to brain death. A prospective observational pilot study. J Crit Care. Published 24 October 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →