The Intrahospital Transport of Neurosurgical Patients

Abstract

Neurosurgical intensive care unit (NICU) patients often require multiple transports for diagnostic studies and interventions over the course of their hospitalizations. While the majority of these transports proceed uneventfully, they are fraught with risk, particularly in the context of a rapidly deteriorating patient. Urgent transports are frequently required at night when staff experience and numbers may be less robust than during daytime shifts. Given the potential for patient injury, many institutions are now moving toward the establishment of a team of professionals who provide both scheduled and emergent transport and continued care during invasive studies. These teams represent an entirely new (and thus far under-recognized) specialty of transport medicine.

There is little in the literature specific to the transport of neurosurgical patients. There is, however, a growing literature regarding the transport of critically ill patients. This chapter reviews the available literature and makes recommendations regarding the safe intrahospital transport of neurosurgical patients.