Futility of Suppressing Seizurelike Activity in Postresuscitation Coma

Abstract

The introduction of electroencephalography (EEG) into hospital practice generated interest in monitoring patients with severe brain injury after cardiac arrest. As early as 1964, a study involving 50 comatose patients who had been resuscitated after cardiac arrest showed “bursts of very large amplitude spikes, sharp waves, or complex wave forms over an entirely flat background,” which purportedly predicted a poor outcome.1 Subsequent studies confirmed that low-voltage alpha waves that were detected beyond their typical location in the parietal and occipital lobes, and absent reactivity of the EEG background to physical stimuli, portended a poor outcome. Synchronous spike-wave discharges, burst suppression, . . .

Topics & Concepts