Pediatric neurocritical care program

Our goal is to provide high-quality, consistent care for all our patients requiring neurocritical care to ensure the best possible functional outcomes: from ICU to clinic. Our program aims to achieve this goal by leveraging our collaborative clinical environment, our robust research infrastructure, and our multidisciplinary commitment to educate the next generation of providers to care for pediatric neurocritical care patients.

What is Pediatric Neurocritical Care?

In pediatric neurocritical care we focus on the care of patients with acute life-threatening neurologic conditions. We also care for patients who have chronic neurologic issues and develop non-neurologic critical care illnesses such as severe infections or respiratory problems.

While all our pediatric critical care and neurology physicians care for patients with acute life-threatening neurological issues, we are excited to have an interdisciplinary neurocritical care team. The collaborative team includes critical care neurologists, pediatric intensivists, neurosurgeons, trauma surgeons, epileptologists, stroke neurologists, physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, and neuropsychologists.

We work together to provide the best care possible for our patients during their stay in the PICU and CICU. The care team also includes specially trained ICU nurses, respiratory therapists, dieticians, pharmacists, child life specialists and social workers.

Conditions we treat

• Acute alteration in mental state
• Acute spinal cord disorders
• Autoimmune and inflammatory neurologic disorders
• Central nervous system manifestations of systemic illness: liver disease, medications, renal disease, severe systemic infections, etc.
• Infections of the nervous system
• Metabolic and genetic disorders that impact the nervous system
• Neuromuscular disorders
• Neurovascular disorders such as stroke, aneurysms, arterio-venous malformations, etc.
• Post cardiac arrest neuromonitoring and neuroprotection
• Seizures, status epilepticus and epilepsy
• Traumatic brain injury 

Tests and treatments

• Computerized tomography (CT, CTA) scans
• Electroencephalogram (EEG)
• EMG (Electromyography) & NCS (Nerve Conduction Studies)
• Head ultrasounds
• Intracranial pressure monitoring
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), MR angiography, MR spectroscopy, MR perfusion, MR with diamox
• Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
• PET (positron emission tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
• Pupillometry
• Transcranial doppler

Location

The pediatric neurocritical care team treats children who are in the pediatric intensive care unit in the Milwaukee campus. The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Children’s Wisconsin is among the largest units in the nation that delivers high quality care and positive patient outcomes led by a team of board-certified pediatric intensivists.

From field to follow-up – get to know our clinics

• PNCC follow up clinic
• BRAIN clinic 

For medical professionals

We are committed to providing training to the next generation of neurologists and critical care physicians. If you are interested in educational opportunities, please contact nmehta@mcw.edu.

Research and resources

Research

• Critical Care Neurologists: Niyati Mehta, Namrata Patel, Raquel Farias-Moeller, Rachel Sawdy APNP
• Neurosurgeons: Irene Kim, Sean Lew, Andrew Foy, Elsa Arocho-Quinones
• Pediatric Critical Care: Binod Balakrishnan, Victoria Ronan, Michael T Meyer, Shilpa Narayan, Kari Rajzer-Wakeham

Helpful links and research

• www.Braintrauma.org – For resources and more information on traumatic brain injuries.
• www.chasa.org - For resources and more information on Hemiplegia and hemiparesis.
• Post intensive care syndrome
• Pediatric Neurocritical care
• Pediatric Neurocritical Care: Evolution of a New Clinical Service in PICUs Across the United States
• Pediatric Critical Care Neurologists in the United States and Canada: A Survey of Clinical Practice Experience

Stories and news

• Alex
• Raynah
• Rania