An Overview of Adult Acute Traumatic Neurologic Injury for the Anesthesiologist: What is Known, What is New, and Emerging Concepts

Purpose of Review We examine what is known, what is new, and what is emerging in acute neurotrauma relevant to the anesthesiologist. Recent Findings Timely and goal-directed care is critical for all patients requiring urgent/emergent anesthesia care. Anesthesia care for acute neurological injury should incorporate understanding the evolution of traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury that translates to preoperative preparation, hemodynamic resuscitation, prevention of second insults, and safe transport between care settings. Anesthesia care should support optimizing patient outcomes. Summary Best practices involve extrapolating data from the intensive care unit setting since there is a lack of research addressing anesthesia care for acute neurological injury. There are opportunities to generate data to support evidence-based anesthetic care.