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Diagnosing Subarachnoid Haemorrhage in Neuro Critical Care

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Synopsis

Join the debate between Bill Knight and Fernanda Bellolio as they go head-to-head, discussing diagnosing subarachnoid haemorrhage in neuro critical care headache. Should you rely on CT and lumbar puncture or, CT followed by CT angiogram. Why should you care? Acute headache accounts for 4% of all visits to the emergency departments. These patients will often describe the “Worst headache of life” – a phrase which can ring the alarm bells in the clincian’s mind. 88% of these will be from benign causes including migraine, tension and cluster. However 10% will have a subarachnoid haemorrhage, of which the vast majority are caused by an aneurysm. These are frequently missed - up to 51% of the time in all settings and 6% of the time in the emergency department. It is in face one of the largest sources of US litigation claims and settlements. So – what is the best way to diagnosis subarachnoid haemorrhage? Bill asserts that the lumbar puncture (LP) following the CT is the way to go. He stresses that the “miss rate” n