Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neurologic Physiology: The Brain and Its Response to Injury

  • Reference work entry
General Surgery

  • 166 Accesses

Pearls and Pitfalls

  • Early clinical recognition and radiographic diagnosis are key initial steps in the management of head injury.

  • Once a surgical lesion has been ruled out in a severely head-injured patient, aggressive medical management should be instituted. Medical management primarily constitutes supportive therapy aimed at preventing secondary insults to the brain, which should include the detection and treatment of raised intracranial pressure (ICP).

  • In the event that first-line therapy for the management of elevated ICPs is unsuccessful, “second-tier” therapy may be cautiously applied.

  • Lack of an aggressive initial approach to the head-injured patient can lead to an exacerbation of the initial injury due to potentially avoidable secondary injury – an inadequate resuscitation can lead to superimposed hypoxic or ischemic injury, and delayed institution of measures to combat increased ICP can result in increases in local tissue pressures and local ischemia, or even avoidable...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 229.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Selected Readings

  • Bullock MR, et al. (2000) Guidelines for the management of severe traumatic brain injury. American Association of Neurologic Surgeons, Joint Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care & Traumatic Brain Trauma Foundation, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock MR, et al. (2006) Guidelines for the surgical management of traumatic brain injury. Neurosurgery 58(Suppl 3):S2–vi

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons MK, Meyer FB (1990) Cerebrospinal fluid physiology and the management of increased intracranial pressure. Mayo Clinic Proc 65:684–707

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rea GL, Rockwold GL (1983) Barbiturate therapy in uncontrolled intracranial hypertension. Neurosurgery; 12:401–404

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tindall GT, Cooper PR, Barrow DL (1996) The practice of neurosurgery, Vol 2. William & Wilkins, Baltimore, MD, pp 1385–1425

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins RH, Rengachary SS (eds) (1996) Neurosurgery, 2nd edn 3 vols. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 2624–2634

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Mamerhi O. Okor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James M. Markert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Deputy Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Kirby I. Bland MD (Fay Fletcher Kerner Professor and Chairman) (Fay Fletcher Kerner Professor and Chairman)

  2. Department of General and Visceral Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Markus W. Büchler MD (Professor of Surgery and Chairman) (Professor of Surgery and Chairman)

  3. Department of Surgery, University Hospital, Santiago, Chile

    Attila Csendes MD, FACS (Hon) (Professor of Surgery and Chairman) (Professor of Surgery and Chairman)

  4. James C. Mason Professor of Surgery Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA

    Michael G. Sarr MD

  5. Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    O. James Garden MBChB, MD, FRCS (Ed), FRCP (Ed), FRACS (Hon) (Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery) (Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery)

  6. Department of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, China

    John Wong BSc (Med (Syd)), MBBS (Syd), PhD (Syd), MD (Hon (Syd)), FRACS, FRCS (Edin), FRCS (Glasg), FACS (Hon) (Chair Professor) (Chair Professor)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Okor, M.O., Markert, J.M. (2009). Neurologic Physiology: The Brain and Its Response to Injury. In: Bland, K.I., Büchler, M.W., Csendes, A., Sarr, M.G., Garden, O.J., Wong, J. (eds) General Surgery. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-833-3_24

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-833-3_24

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84628-832-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84628-833-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation