Table of Contents
Washington University Experience | VASCULAR | Edema - Cerebral | 2A0 Case 2 History
Case 2 History ---- This patient was a 62 year old woman with a history of coronary artery disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus and COPD. On 12/19 she complained of acute shortness of breath; EMS was called and she became unresponsive. EMS arrived minutes later and were able to recover a pulse after about 10 minutes of CPR and administration of epinephrine and atropine. She was intubated and taken to an outside hospital where a head CT was interpreted as suspicious for cerebral edema, increased intracranial pressure and subarachnoid hemorrhage. She was subsequently transferred to the BJH ER where she lacked many brainstem reflexes and was posturing. In the interim a head CT angiogram confirmed lack of blood flow in the intracranial arteries consistent with the diagnosis of brain death secondary to anoxic brain injury. Based on the history obtained at the time of her care, she had no history of headache or seizure prior to the event, and no prior history of stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage. ---- Autopsy findings included severe global hypoxic/ischemic damage involving the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, brainstem and cerebellum. The unfixed brain weight was 1340 grams.
