My Patient Just Won't Wake Up: Now What? A Framework and Approach to Mystery Encephalopathy

Failed heuristics are common when caring for critically ill patients with neurologic disease and altered mental status. In this session, we will start with a review of several neurologic cases in which a cognitive bias resulted in incorrect diagnosis.  We will then spend the rest of the session working through a framework for altered mental status which can help reduce diagnostic errors, screen for uncommon presentations of common pathology, and identify truly rare diseases. In developing this framework, we will highlight some uncommon but “worth-knowing” pathologies such as Steroid Responsive Encephalopathy associated with Autoimmune Thyroiditis (SREAT), Subacute Encephalopathy with Seizures in Alcoholics (SESA syndrome), and anti-MOG encephalitis. All session attendees will leave with QR-linked helpful algorithms.