Sedation and analgesia therapy play important roles in neurocritical care, but there are still some controversies regarding its assessment, implementation, and reduction. With the development of neurocritical care medicine, the update of evidence-based medicine and the marketing of new analgesic and sedative drugs, considering the differences in the cognition and practice of analgesic and sedative medicine among neurocritical care practitioners in China, the National Center for Healthcare Quality Management in Neurological Diseases and Chinese Society of Critical Care Medicine organized experts in this fields to form a Working Group of the Chinese Expert Consensus on Sedation and Analgesia for Neurocritical Care Patients. Based on existing evidence-based medical evidence, the expert group updated the Expert consensus on sedation and analgesia for patients with severe brain injury (2013). The update focused on 5 domains involving 18 questions related to analgesic and sedative therapy for neurocritical care patients, including the purpose of analgesic and sedative therapy, monitoring during analgesic and sedative therapy, drug selection, and the application for refractory intracranial hypertension and targeted temperature management. A total of 31 recommendations were provided on these topics. This update aimed to renew the existing evidence-based consensus to guide clinical diagnosis and treatment, improve the quality of neurocritical care and enhance outcomes of neurocritical patients.

Neurocritical care; Analgesia; Sedation; Delirium; Expert consensus