We provide consultation in the Emergency Department (ED), Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) and Multidisciplinary ICU (MD-ICU). Consults cover a broad range of patient management issues, including intracranial hypertension, cerebral edema, post-traumatic seizures and optimization of cerebral or spinal cord perfusion. We also play an integral role in prognostication for patients with TBI and SCI in the SICU and MD-ICU as well as in the Neuroscience ICU.
The Neurotrauma Consult team joins the ED, Trauma and Neurosurgery teams in the acute evaluation of patients with TBI in the ED. During the initial minutes of evaluation and stabilization, the Neurotrauma Consult team performs a neurological assessment of patients with TBI and contributes to decision-making about brain imaging, intracranial monitoring, operative management and ICU triage.
In addition to improving care for patients with TBI, the Neurotrauma Consult Service has created new opportunities for collaboration between the Neurocritical Care, Neurosurgery, Trauma, ED and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation teams, as evidenced by numerous ongoing research studies led by multidisciplinary teams of investigators. Multidisciplinary collaboration has also enabled the development, review and approval of inter-departmental clinical guidelines for TBI, such as the initial assessment and management of severe TBI, intracranial monitoring for TBI, hypothermia for refractory intracranial hypertension in TBI and disorders of consciousness guidelines.
