Hello, and welcome back! Firstly, I must apologise for such a prolonged absence. I can’t quite believe it has been so long since my last blog post but I seem to have managed to keep myself very busy with a number of things. Regardless, we shall crack on with having a look through the different critical care and anaesthesia literature out there that is waiting to be devoured. Given that I have currently just started a block of neuro-critical care, I felt it was a good time to have a look at some of the big studies in this area, especially as there have been a few interesting ones recently. Today I’ve opted to have a look at the RESCUEicp study which came out in September last year. The full text is available at the link below, and I’d definitely recommend having a look at it as well as just reading my rambling thoughts. I’ve also put together a more focused review of the paper here [link] if you want to read a bit more of the details. ​

The RESCUEicp Study
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In last week’s journal club, we turned our gaze back to neuro critical care, with a paper that revisited the question of blood pressure control in acute intracerebral haemorrhage. It’s a scenario that is familiar to many of us; the systolic blood pressures well into the 200s in a patient with a new bleed in their head. Qureshi and colleagues have tried to revisit the question of what is the best way to respond to this through the ATACH2 trial (Antihypertensive Treatment in Acute Cerebral Haemorrhage II). The paper is available to read through the link below:

The ATACH2 Trial