Encephalopathy In Intensive Care

Abstract

Encephalopathy refers to permanent (or degenerative) brain injury, and in others it is reversible. It can be due to direct injury to the brain, or illness remote from the brain. In medical terms it can refer to a wide variety of brain disorders with very different etiologies, prognoses and implications. For example, prion diseases, all of which cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, are invariably fatal, but other encephalopathies are reversible and can be caused by nutritional deficiencies, toxins, and several other causes. There are many types of encephalopathy including: mitochondrial encephalopathy, glycine encephalopathy, hepatic encephalopathy, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, Wernicke’s encephalopathy, Hashimoto’s encephalopathy, hypertensive encephalopathy, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, lyme encephalopathy, toxic encephlaopathy, metabolic encephalopathy, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, neonatal encephalopathy and encephalomyopathy. The hallmark of encephalopathy is an altered mental state. Depending on the type and severity of encephalopathy, common neurological symptoms are loss of cognitive function, subtle personality changes, inability to concentrate, lethargy, and depressed consciousness. Other neurological signs may include 32Tmyoclonus32T (involuntary twitching of a muscle or group of muscles), 32Tasterixis32T (abrupt loss of muscle tone, quickly restored), 32Tnystagmus32T (rapid, involuntary eye movement), tremor, 32Tseizures32T, 32Tjactitation32T (restless

picking at things characteristic of severe infection)[32Tcitation needed32T], and respiratory abnormalities such as 32TCheyne-Stokes respiration32T (cyclic waxing and waning of tidal volume), 32Tapneustic respirations32T and post-hypercapnic apnea.