title: Standards of scoring, monitoring, and parameter targeting in German neurocritical care units: a national survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Optimal management of physiological parameters in neurological/neurosurgical intensive care units (NICUs) is largely unclear as high-quality evidence is lacking. The aim of this survey was to investigate if standards exist in the use of clinical scores, systemic and cerebral monitoring and the targeting of physiology values and in what way this affects clinical management in German NICUs.
  
  
  METHODS
  National survey, on-line anonymized questionnaire. German departments stating to run a neurological, neurosurgical or interdisciplinary neurological/neurosurgical intensive care unit were identified by a web-based search of all German hospitals and contacted via email.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Responses from 78 German NICUs were obtained. Of 19 proposed clinical/laboratory/radiological scores only 5 were used regularly by >60 %. Bedside neuromonitoring (NM) predominantly consisted of transcranial Doppler sonography (94 %), electroencephalography (92 %) and measurement of intracranial pressure (ICP) (90 %), and was installed if patients had or were threatened by elevated ICP (86 %), had specific diseases like subarachnoid hemorrhage (51 %) or were comatose (35 %). Although mean trigger values for interventions complied with guidelines or wide-spread customs, individual trigger values varied widely, e.g., for hyperglycemia (maximum blood glucose between 120 and 250 mg/dl) or for anemia (minimum hemoglobin values between 5 and 10 g/dl).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although apparently aiming for standardization in neurocritical care, German NICUs show substantial differences in NM and monitoring-associated interventions. In terms of scoring and monitoring methods, German NICUs seem to be quite conservative. These survey results suggest a need of prospective and randomized interventional trials in neurocritical care to help define standards and target values.
authors: Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Köln, Cologne, Germany.
authors: C M
authors: CM
authors: Kowoll
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Dohmen
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Kahmann
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Dziewas
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Schirotzek
authors: O W
authors: OW
authors: Sakowitz
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Bösel
mesh_terms: D005858:Germany; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000592:standards*; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*
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