Interventional Radiology Management of Hepatic Encephalopathy.

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a clinically severe and devastating complication of decompensated liver disease affecting mortality, quality of life for patients and families, hospital admission rates, and overall health-care costs globally. Depending on the cause of HE, several medical treatment options have been developed and become available. In some refractory HE, such as spontaneous portosystemic shunt-related HE (SPSS-HE) or posttransjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt HE (post-TIPS HE), advanced interventional radiology (IR) procedures have been used, and shown to be effective in these conditions. This review presents 2 effective IR procedures for managing SPSS-HE and post-TIPS HE.

Cardiac arrest after severe traumatic brain injury can be survivable with good outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Resuscitation for traumatic cardiac arrest (TCA) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) has historically been considered futile. There is little information on the characteristics and outcomes of these patients to guide intervention and prognosis. The purpose of the current study is to report the clinical characteristics, survival, and long-term neurological outcomes in patients who experienced TCA after sTBI and analyze the factors contributing to survival. METHODS: A retrospective review identified 42 patients with TCA from a total of 402 patients with sTBI (Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score ≤8) who were admitted to Stony Brook University Hospital, a level I trauma center, from January 2011 to December 2018. Patient demographics, clinical characteristics, survival, and neurological functioning during hospitalization and at follow-up visits were collected. RESULTS: Of the 42 patients, the average age was 45 years and 21.4% were female. Eight patients survived the injury (19.0%) to discharge and seven survived with good neurological function. Admission GCS score and bilateral pupil reactivity were found to be significant indicators of survival. The mean GCS score was 5.3 in survivors and 3.2 in non-survivors (p=0.020). Age, Injury Severity Score, or cardiac rhythm was not associated with survival. Frequent neuroimaging findings included subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, and diffuse axonal injury. DISCUSSION: TCA after sTBI is survivable and seven out of eight patients in our study recovered with good neurological function. GCS score and pupil reactivity are the best indicators of survival. Our results suggest that due to the possibility of recovery, resuscitation and neurosurgical care should not be withheld from this patient population. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, therapeutic/care management.

Modeling the return to consciousness after severe traumatic brain injury at a large academic level 1 trauma center.

OBJECTIVE: Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) carries significant morbidity and mortality. It remains difficult to counsel families on functional prognosis and plan research initiatives aimed at treating traumatic coma. In order to better address these problems, the authors set out to develop statistical models using retrospective data to identify admission characteristics that correlate with time until the return of consciousness, defined as the time to follow commands (TFC). These results were then used to create a TFC score, allowing for rapid identification of patients with predicted prolonged TFC. METHODS: Data were reviewed and collected from medical records of sTBI patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) motor subscores ≤ 5 who were admitted to Stony Brook University Hospital from January 2011 to July 2018. Data were used to calculate descriptive statistics and build binary logistic regression models to identify admission characteristics that correlated with in-hospital mortality and in-hospital command-following. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify admission characteristics that correlated with the length of TFC. A TFC score was developed using the significant variables identified in the Cox regression model. RESULTS: There were 402 adult patients who met the inclusion criteria for this study. The average age was 50.5 years, and 122 (30.3%) patients were women. In-hospital mortality was associated with older age, higher Injury Severity Score (ISS), higher Rotterdam score (head CT grading system), and the presence of bilateral fixed and dilated pupils (p < 0.01). In-hospital command-following was anticorrelated with age, ISS, Rotterdam score, and the presence of a single fixed and dilated pupil (p < 0.05). TFC was anticorrelated with age, ISS, Rotterdam score, and the presence of a single fixed and dilated pupil. Additionally, patients who sustained injuries from falls from standing height had a shorter average TFC. The 3 significant variables from the Cox regression model that explained the most variance were used to create a 4-point TFC score. The most significant of these characteristics were Rotterdam head CT scores, high impact traumas, and the presence of a single fixed and dilated pupil. Importantly, the presence of a single fixed and dilated pupil was correlated with longer TFC but no increase in likelihood of in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The creation of the 4-point TFC score will allow clinicians to quickly identify patients with predicted prolonged TFC and estimate the likelihood of command-following at different times after injury. Discussions with family members should take into account the likelihood that patients will return to consciousness and survive after TBI.

Chondroitinase improves anatomical and functional outcomes after primate spinal cord injury.

Inhibitory extracellular matrices form around mature neurons as perineuronal nets containing chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans that limit axonal sprouting after CNS injury. The enzyme chondroitinase (Chase) degrades inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans and improves axonal sprouting and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in rodents. We evaluated the effects of Chase in rhesus monkeys that had undergone C7 spinal cord hemisection. Four weeks after hemisection, we administered multiple intraparenchymal Chase injections below the lesion, targeting spinal cord circuits that control hand function. Hand function improved significantly in Chase-treated monkeys relative to vehicle-injected controls. Moreover, Chase significantly increased corticospinal axon growth and the number of synapses formed by corticospinal terminals in gray matter caudal to the lesion. No detrimental effects were detected. This approach appears to merit clinical translation in spinal cord injury.

Restorative effects of human neural stem cell grafts on the primate spinal cord.

We grafted human spinal cord-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) into sites of cervical spinal cord injury in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Under three-drug immunosuppression, grafts survived at least 9 months postinjury and expressed both neuronal and glial markers. Monkey axons regenerated into grafts and formed synapses. Hundreds of thousands of human axons extended out from grafts through monkey white matter and synapsed in distal gray matter. Grafts gradually matured over 9 months and improved forelimb function beginning several months after grafting. These findings in a 'preclinical trial' support translation of NPC graft therapy to humans with the objective of reconstituting both a neuronal and glial milieu in the site of spinal cord injury.