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Neuro Intensive Care Unit Meet Our Team Contact Information Request an Apppointment     Email This Page Print This Page           Neuro Intensive Care Unit Children’s National Medical Center leads the region in the care of children with brain injury or disease. Through collaborative efforts of the Division of Critical Care Medicine, Neurosurgery, and , Children’s is focusing on the brain as the next medical frontier in pediatric intensive care. When Children’s opened the new East Inpatient Tower in November 2007, it also unveiled the Gregory Mark Taubin Neuro Intensive Care Unit, the only dedicated pediatric Neuro ICU in the region. Children’s Neuro ICU has a dedicated team of critical care physicians, neurologists, neurosurgeons, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory and physical therapists, case managers, and other personnel. It has special monitoring capabilities that can continually evaluate brain activity. Researchers are only now beginning to understand the importance of assessing brain oxygenation and the fluid surrounding the brain, especially in cases of traumatic brain injury. In the Neuro ICU, sophisticated monitoring of blood flow to and from the brain, in addition to the brain itself, reveals important information about brain oxygenation, metabolism, and blood flow. Children’s has been a leader in intensive care outcome research for many years. The improved monitoring and assessment capabilities, combined with ongoing research efforts, are ushering in a new era of prediction of long-term neurological outcomes early in the course of hospitalization. Other areas of research focus on ways to improve immediate patient care and long-term function. Children’s now provides the cutting-edge therapy of hypothermia (lowering the temperature of the body) to patients with brain injury. The Neuro ICU also emphasizes support for the patient’s family during the difficult days following an acute brain injury. Families can now spend more time at the patient’s bedside, with sleeping facilities for a parent or caregiver within the child’s room.