| Summary: | Epileptic events are now known to occur more frequently in the intensive care unit (ICU) than previously thought, a situation concealed by the many variables operating at any given moment in the ICU's environment of heavy drug and sedative use. In Seizures in Critical Care: A Guide to Diagnosis and Therapeutics, a panel of international ICU and epilepsy physicians and researchers detail the epileptic phenomena that occur in the complex environment of the ICU. Focusing on the central nervous system, the authors systematically examine the most up-to-date evidenced-based data regarding ICU seizures, including their most frequent causes, their pathophysiology, their clinical presentation, and the diagnostic evaluation needed to confirm their presence. They also discuss the challenges and specifics of the management of ICU seizures, reviewing the new antiepileptics and their interaction with other ICU medications, drugs with epileptogenic properties used in the ICU, and the role of the new enterally available antiepileptics in treating such seizures. Numerous tables summarize drug interactions, neuroimages reveal common ICU seizure etiologies, and multiple electroencephalographic recordings demonstrate clinical or subclinical seizures in ICU patients. Authoritative and uniquely practical, Seizures in Critical Care: A Guide to Diagnosis and Therapeutics offers hospital-based medical professionals and ICU specialists, for the first time, a systematic survey of, and reference guide to, the diagnosis and treatment of epileptic seizures in the ICU.
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