| Sudden Death of Elderly Patients Treated in Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit after Brain Surgery for Neurotrauma |
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Sung Soo Bae1 , Seok Keun Choi1 , Hyuk Jai Choi1 , Daewon Joh1 , Mi Suk Lee2 , Young Jin Lim1 |
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Department of Neurosurgery1, of Internal Medicine2, Kyung-Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea |
| 65세 이상 고령 환자의 외상에 대한 신경외과적 수술 시행 후 발생한 급성 사망 - 증례 보고 - |
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배성수1ㆍ최석근1ㆍ최혁재1ㆍ조대원1ㆍ이미숙2ㆍ임영진1 |
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경희대학교 의과대학 신경외과학교실1, 내과학교실2 |
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| Abstract |
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The rapid deterioration of the pre-existing medical problems after surgery can make lethal outcomes to elderly people. This is in particular after brain surgery, if the patient has neurologic deficits, it becomes more difficult to diagnose and treat those medical problems. Elderly patients composite a major proportion in neurosurgical field, who have various underlying medical problems. After brain surgery, medically aggravating problems are as important as brain lesion for improvement of clinical outcomes. However, many elderly patients who experience brain surgery have neurologic deficits and when medical problems confront, the diagnosis may be misled due to limited communication. We describe two cases of elderly patients who were surgically treated for brain trauma and expired suddenly although the post-operative neurologic deficits were mild. Initially the patient in the case 1 presented with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 12 and the patient in the case 2 presented with GCS score of 13. In these cases, emergency craniotomy and hematoma evacuation were performed successfully but both patients suddenly died from unknown cause. The purpose of this study is to consider the possible causes of sudden death of surgically treated elderly patients. |
| Key Words:
Old ageㆍHead injuryㆍBrain surgeryㆍMedical problems |
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