Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVES: We sought to 1) evaluate how pediatricians approach situations in which families request continuation of organ support after declaration of death by neurologic criteria and 2) explore potential interventions to make these situations less challenging. DESIGN: A survey on management and personal experience with death by neurologic criteria was distributed electronically to pediatric intensivists and neurologists. We compared responses from individuals who practice in states with accommodation exceptions (accommodation states where religious or moral beliefs must be taken into consideration when declaring death: California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York) to those from non-accommodation states. SETTING: United States. SUBJECTS: The survey was opened by 254 recipients, with 186 meeting inclusion criteria and providing data about the region in which they practice; of these, 26% were from accommodation states. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: More than half of physicians (61% from both accommodation states and non-accommodation states) reported they cared for a pediatric patient whose family requested continuation of organ support after declaration of death by neurologic criteria (outside of organ donation; range, 1-17 times). Over half of physicians (53%) reported they would not feel comfortable handling a situation in which a pediatric patient's family requested care be continued after declaration of death by neurologic criteria. Nearly every physician (98%) endorsed that something needs to be done to make situations involving families who object to discontinuation of organ support after declaration of death by neurologic criteria easier to handle. Respondents felt that public education, physician education, and uniform state laws about these situations are warranted. CONCLUSIONS: It is relatively common for pediatricians who care for critically ill patients to encounter families who object to discontinuation of organ support after death by neurologic criteria. Management of these situations is challenging, and guidance for medical professionals and the public is needed.

BACKGROUND: The morbidity, mortality, and monetary cost associated with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is devastatingly high. Several scoring systems have been proposed to prognosticate outcomes following ICH, though the original ICH Score is still the most widely used. However, recent research suggests that systemic physiological factors, such as those included in the APACHE II score, may also influence outcome. Additionally, no scoring systems to date include pre-morbid functional status. Therefore, we propose a scoring system that incorporates these factors to prognosticate 3- and 12-month functional outcomes. METHODS: We used the Random Forest machine learning technique to identify factors from a dataset of over 200 data points per patient that were most strongly affiliated with functional outcome. We then used linear regression to create an initial model based on these factors and modified weightings to improve accuracy. Our scoring system was compared to the ICH Score for prognosticating functional outcomes. RESULTS: Two separate scoring systems (ICHOP3 and ICHOP12) were developed for 3- and 12-month functional outcomes using GCS, NIHSS, APACHE II, pre-morbid modified Rankin scale (mRS), and hematoma volume (3-month only). Patient outcomes were dichotomized into good (mRS 0-3) and poor (mRS 4-6) categories based on functional status. AUCs in the derivation cohort for predicting mRS were 0.89 (3-month) and 0.87 (12-month); both were significantly more discriminatory than the original ICH Score. CONCLUSION: The ICHOP scores may provide more comprehensive evaluation of a patient's long-term functional prognosis by taking into account systemic physiological factors as well as pre-morbid functional status.

BACKGROUND: Three recent lawsuits that address declaration of brain death (BD) garnered significant media attention and threaten to limit physician power to declare BD. METHODS: We discuss these cases and their consequences including: the right to refuse an apnea test, accepted medical standards for declaration of BD, and the irreversibility of BD. RESULTS: These cases warrant discussion because they threaten to: limit physicians' power to determine death; incite families to seek injunctions to continue organ support after BD; and force hospitals to dispense valuable resources to dead patients in lieu of patients with reparable illnesses or injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians, philosophers, religious officials, ethicists, and lawyers must work together to address these issues and educate both the public and medical community about BD.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The ideal strategy to prevent infections in patients with external ventricular drains (EVDs) is unclear. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of members of the Neurocritical Care Society on infection prevention practices for patients with EVDs between April and July 2015. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 52 individuals (5% response rate). Catheter selection, use of prolonged prophylactic systemic antibiotics (PPSAs), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collection policies, location of EVD placement, and performance of routine EVD exchanges varied. Antibiotic-impregnated catheters (AICs) and conventional catheters (CCs) were used with similar frequency, but no respondents reported routine use of silver-impregnated catheters (SICs). The majority of respondents were either neutral or disagreed with the need for PPSA with all catheter types (CC: 75%, AIC: 85%, and SIC: 87%). Despite this, 55% of the respondents reported PPSAs were routinely administered to patients with EVDs at their institutions. The majority (80%) of the respondents reported CSF collection only on an as-needed basis. The EVD placement was restricted to the operating room at 27% of the respondents' institutions. Only 2 respondents (4%) reported that routine EVD exchanges were performed at their institution. CONCLUSION: Practice patterns demonstrate that institutions use varying strategies to prevent ventriculostomy-related infections. Identification and further study of optimum care for these patients are essential to decrease the risk of complications and to aid development of practice standards.

We sought to evaluate whether television and cinematic coverage of brain death is educational or misleading. We identified 24 accessible productions that addressed brain death using the archives of the Paley Center for Media (160 000 titles) and the Internet Movie Database (3.7 million titles). Productions were reviewed by two board-certified neurologists. Although 19 characters were pronounced brain dead, no productions demonstrated a complete examination to assess for brain death (6 included an assessment for coma, 9 included an evaluation of at least 1 brainstem reflex, but none included an assessment of every brainstem reflex, and 2 included an apnea test). Subjectively, both authors believed only a small fraction of productions (13% A.L., 13% J.W.) provided the public a complete and accurate understanding of brain death. Organ donation was addressed in 17 productions (71%), but both reviewers felt that the discussions about organ donation were professional in a paucity of productions (9% for A.L., 27% for J.W.). Because television and movies serve as a key source for public education, the quality of productions that feature brain death must be improved.

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to determine the effects of eliminating the use of prolonged prophylactic systemic antibiotics (PPSAs) in patients with subdural and subgaleal drains. METHODS Using a retrospective database, the authors collected data for patients over the age of 17 years who had undergone cranial surgery at their institution between December 2013 and July 2014 (PPSAs period) or between December 2014 and July 2015 (non-PPSAs period) and had subdural or subgaleal drains left in place postoperatively. RESULTS One hundred five patients in the PPSAs period and 80 in the non-PPSAs period were identified. The discontinuation of PPSAs did not result in an increase in the frequency of surgical site infection (SSI). The frequency of Clostridium difficile (CDI) and the growth of resistant bacteria were reduced in the non-PPSAs period in comparison with the PPSAs period. In the 8 months after the drain prophylaxis protocol was changed, $93,194.63 were saved in the costs of antibiotics and complications related to antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS After discontinuing PPSAs for patients with subdural or subgaleal drains at their institution, the authors did not observe an increase in the frequency of SSI. They did, however, note a decrease in the frequency of CDI and the growth of resistant organisms. It appears that not only can patients in this population do without PPSAs, but also that complications are avoided when antibiotic use is limited to 24 hours after surgery.

Introduction: Because the media plays an important role in educating the public and impacting public perception on medical topics, we sought to evaluate whether mainstream media provides education or misinformation to the public about brain death through review of articles on two recent highly publicized brain death cases: 1) the Jahi McMath case, in which a teenage girl was declared brain dead and her family refused to allow organ support to be discontinued; and 2) the Marlise Munoz case, in which a pregnant woman was declared brain dead and the hospital refused to terminate organ support until they were ordered to do so by a judge. Methods: We reviewed articles published prior to July 31, 2015 on the most shared/heavily trafficked mainstream media websites of 2014 using the search terms, "Jahi McMath" and "Marlise Munoz." Each article was evaluated to determine whether it contained 1) teaching points, or 2) misinformation, defined as misleading, incomplete, or incorrect information. Results: We reviewed 208 unique articles. The subject was referred to as being "alive" or on "life support" in 72% (149) of the articles, 97% (144) of which also described the subject as being brain dead. A definition of brain death was provided in 4% (9) of the articles. Only 7% (14) of the articles noted that organ support should be discontinued after brain death declaration unless a family has agreed to organ donation. Reference was made to well-known cases of patients in persistent vegetative states in 16% (34) of articles and 47% (16) of these implied both patients were in the same clinical state. Conclusions: Mainstream media provides poor education to the public on brain death. Because public understanding of brain death impacts organ and tissue donation, it is important for physicians, organ procurement organizations, and transplant coordinators to improve public education on this topic