Take Home Points
- Altered mental status has numerous possible etiologies. Splitting it into vital sign issues, toxic/metabolic, infectious processes, CNS issues (bleed, mass) and psych/dementia is a good way to organize your thoughts
- Hypertensive encephalopathy is a diagnosis of exclusion – make sure you’re not dealing with another process like meningitis or an intracranial hemorrhage
- Once the diagnosis of hypertensive encephalopathy is made, shoot to lower the SBP by about 20-25% over the hour using a drug like nicardipine, clevidipine or labetalol
REBEL Core Cast 53.0 – Hypertensive Encephalopathy
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Read More:
- EM: RAP: Critical Care Mailbag – Hypertensive Encephalopathy
- IBCC: Hypertensive Emergencies
- EM Cases: Hypertensive Emergencies
Post Peer Reviewed By: Salim R. Rezaie, MD (Twitter: @srrezaie)
Cite this article as: Anand Swaminathan, "REBEL Core Cast 53.0 – Hypertensive Encephalopathy", REBEL EM blog, April 7, 2021. Available at: https://rebelem.com/rebel-core-cast-53-0-hypertensive-encephalopathy/.