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Review
. 2023 May 31;19(2):185-194.
doi: 10.13004/kjnt.2023.19.e19. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Deep Sedation in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Yoon-Hee Choo  1 , Youngbeom Seo  2 , Hyuk-Jin Oh  3
Affiliations
Review

Deep Sedation in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Yoon-Hee Choo et al. Korean J Neurotrauma. .

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of mortality and disability in adults. In cases of severe TBI, preventing secondary brain injury by managing intracranial hypertension during the acute phase is a critical treatment challenge. Among surgical and medical interventions to control intracranial pressure (ICP), deep sedation can provide comfort to patients and directly control ICP by regulating cerebral metabolism. However, insufficient sedation does not achieve the intended treatment goals, and excessive sedation can lead to fatal sedative-related complications. Therefore, it is important to continuously monitor and titrate sedatives by measuring the appropriate depth of sedation. In this review, we discuss the effectiveness of deep sedation, techniques to monitor the depth of sedation, and the clinical use of recommended sedatives, barbiturates, and propofol in TBI.

Keywords: Brain injuries, traumatic; Critical care; Deep sedation; Hypnotics and sedatives.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings described in this paper.

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