Neurointensive care is a specialty dedicated to the management of patients with acute, disabling, and often life-threatening problems of the nervous system. Neurologists and neurosurgeons who subspecialize in this area also have a honed expertise in the prognostication of acute neurological problems.

The University of Chicago maintains a dedicated Neurointensive Care Program to provide patients with the latest neurological treatments available. There is a dedicated Neurointensive care unit with Neurointensive care specialist physicians, fellows and nurses with extensive experience in managing critically-ill neurological and neurosurgical patients. Some of the contemporary stroke therapies that are already available or soon will be available at the University of Chicago include:

• intravenous thrombolysis
• intra-arterial thrombolysis
• mechanical thrombolysis-acute hypothermia
• minimally invasive hematoma removal for intracerebral hemorrhage
• surgical treatments for brain swelling after stroke

Other than stroke-related problems, neuro-intensive care specialists have expertise in the management of:

• brain and spinal cord trauma
• nerve and muscle diseases, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and myasthenia gravis
• unusual post-infection complications such as transverse myelitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis
• brain infections such as encephalitis and meningitis
• brain swelling and increased intracranial pressure due to a wide variety of illnesses
• persistent seizures
• complex perioperative neurologic problems
• neurological prognostication
• brain death

The neurointensive care unit at the University of Chicago is a unique program in the greater Midwest region. Staffed by neurologists and neurosurgeons, the unit is dedicated to patients with acute neurologic and neurosurgical disease.