| Cerebral Infarction of Guardians after Psychological Stress |
|
Jun Hwan Kim1 , Si On Kim1,2 |
|
1Department of Neurosurgery, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University College of Medicine, Seoul,
2Graduate School of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea |
|
|
| Abstract |
|
When patients are transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), their guardians become psychologically weak from anxiety over them. Due to such weakened state, the guardians are easily shocked by their interaction with medical teams, especially when the medical state of the patient is not good. In our case, the guardian of the ICU patient, a 71-year-old female, instantly collapsed to the floor after receiving such negative medical debriefing and sudden dysarthria was developed. In her brain MRI, acute cerebral infarction was observed on her right hippocampus. As a part of the limbic system, the hippocampus controls and processes emotions, behaviors, motivations, and memories. We suspect that severe psychological stress injured the guardian’s hippocampus. The result of this case pointed out the need for us to cautiously explain a patient’s condition to his or her guardian to prevent unnecessary secondary casualties. |
| Key Words:
Cerebral infarctionㆍPsychological stressㆍGuardianㆍIntensive care unit |
|
PDF Links
Download Citation
