47th Critical Care Congress:
Updates from the Neuroscience
Section
By Neha S. Dangayachm, MD, Aarti Sarwal, MD, and Vineeta Singh, MD
The Neuroscience Section of the Society of Critical Care Medicine
was well-represented at the 47th Critical Care Congress in the
program, honors and attendance. The SCCM now has 16,000
critical care professionals in more than 100 countries, and, like
previous years, this meeting has continued to be the largest event
to bring together attendees from several specialties, providers and
practitioners of critical care teams striving to provide the “Right
Care, Right Now.” The theme for the annual meeting of 2018 was
“Global Reach and Local Impact.” The presidential address by Ruth
Kleinpell highlighted the growing reach and impact of the congress
globally not only in education and research but also in generous
donations and volunteer services in disaster-stricken areas.
It was an exceptionally proud moment for neurocritical care as we
celebrated the Lifetime Achievement awardee Dr. Thomas Bleck,
a great clinician-researcher, mentor, thought leader and pioneer.
His plenary session talk on how critical care illness affects the
brain and vice versa was a journey into a career spanning many
years. The discussion moved seamlessly from EEG in ICU to
sepsis-associated encephalopathy to a glimpse into the present
and promise of modulating immune dysregulation and the neuroimmunologic
reflex arc. However, one of the most popular slides
from Dr. Bleck’s talk on Twitter was his approach to evidencebased
medicine over the years. Dr. Vineeta Singh organized a
memorable dinner to mark the occasion as we listened to some
inspiring stories from Dr. Bleck.
We must congratulate the Annual Congress Programming
Committee for selecting great proposals to engage
multidisciplinary learners in neurocritical care education. On Feb.
24, 2018, co-chairs Drs. Erik Su and Cherylee Chang organized the
first ever pre-congress full-day course on “Neurologic Monitoring
and its Implementation in Adult and Pediatric ICUs.” This course
covered didactics on critical care EEG monitoring, brain tissue
oximetry, transcranial dopplers (TCDs), ophthalmic ultrasound,
biomarkers, neuroimaging, and intracranial pressure monitoring
(ICP) followed by a hands-on workshop on TCDs, ophthalmic
ultrasound and ICP monitoring. This course was sold out.
On Feb. 25, at the Neuroscience Business Section Meeting
luncheon, we thanked Dr. Fred Rincon for his leadership as the
section’s outgoing chair; welcomed Drs. Lori Shutter as chair-elect;
and Karen Hirsch, Axel Rosengardt and Venkatakrishna Rajajee
as members at large of this section. The open-floor discussions at
this meeting ranged from priorities of the section, educational and
research opportunities for neuroscience members. Just like this
year’s congress, the upcoming year promises to be exciting for the
neuroscience section and we hope to see a rich representation in
the scientific program of 2019.
We are excited to report that all the sessions pertaining to
neurosciences were extremely well received; some had standing
room only while others had to utilize the overflow room at the
congress. Neurosciences research snapshots highlighted the
diversity in adult and pediatric neurocritical care research. A
multidisciplinary session on neuromuscular respiratory failure
with perspectives from neurology, pulmonology and nursing
moderated by Dr. Eelco Widjicks included Dr. Aarti Sarwal and
Dai Wai Olson.
Neha S. Dangayach Aarti Sarwal Vineeta Singh
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