Neurocritical Care is a field of medicine that deals with patients who have had or who are at risk for severe, acute nervous system injury. There is an increasing demand for acute neurologic care because of the heavy burden of neurocritical illness, and considering the morbidity and mortality of severe neurological diseases remains high. Neuro critical care is attracting a multi professional group of practitioners into the workforce. These individuals play an important role not only in the delivery of care to neurological critically ill patients but are key to the advocacy, education, prevention and research to help improve outcomes.
Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata (I-NK) which has a well-developed a state-of-the-art Department of Neurocritical Care, is organizing a two-day conference, “Update in Neurocritical Care, 2023” on the 16th and 17th of September at the institute.Dr Ankur Khandelwal, Dr A Shobhona, Dr Hrishikesh Kumar, Dr. Rahul Ghiya, Prof Bibhukalyani Das(Academic Director & HOD Anesthesia & Critical Care) and Prof R.P Sengupta(Chairman) were present during the inauguration.
The theme of this year’s conference, “Save Brain, Save Life” explains the importance of timely interventions in gifting a meaningful life to neurological patients. Many eminent doctors will participate in this meeting. The workshops on the first day will include electrophysiology for intensivists. neuromonitoring, and difficult airway. This is the first time in Kolkata that such exclusive neurocritical care workshops have been organized. Electrophysiology workshops will help to identify and manage seizure disorders, neuromuscular disorders and classify different abnormalities of the electrical activity of the brain in the critical care unit. Neuromonitoring will include automated a accurate measurement of pupillary indices, optic nerve sheath diameter to identify increased pressure in the cranial cavity, transcranial Doppler to assess the blood flow to the brain which contributes significantly to acute stroke care, and the latest technology of quantifying brain tissue oxygenation (NIRS). The main conference will include topics like brain and spinal cord injury, difficult case epilepsy, neuro infections, ventilator strategies in neuromuscular disorders, acute stroke, brain dc and organ donation as well as a discussion on the much-debated end-of-life care issues.
