Skip to content

Impact of Neurochecks on Sleep in Critically Ill Adults

Impact of Neurochecks on Sleep in Critically Ill Adults

Status
Active, not recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05864300
Enrollment
30
Registered
2023-05-18
Start date
2023-08-11
Completion date
2026-10-01
Last updated
2026-09-04

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cerebral Aneurysm

Keywords

neurocheck; sleep; neurological examination

Brief summary

Background: Following acute brain injury (ABI), patients are monitored in the intensive care unit (ICU) where providers rely on frequent neurological examinations ("neurochecks") to assess for neurodeterioration. Serial neurochecks are part of guideline recommendations, but there is equipoise between hourly (Q1) and every-other-hour (Q2) evaluation. In the ICU, care-related awakenings occur frequently, but it is unclear if differential neurocheck frequencies result in differential sleep, providing the scientific premise for this proposal. Population: Thirty patients (N=15 per group) who have undergone elective aneurysm coiling will be enrolled. On post-operative day (POD) 0, patients will be screened and approached for informed consent if they do not meet exclusion criteria, e.g., prior intracranial injury, sleep disorders, cognitive impairment, mechanical ventilation. Patients with elective aneurysm coiling are being chosen because they require ICU level of care following their intracranial procedure, but do not have structural brain injury or ongoing sedation needs that might impact sleep measurements. Methods: Usual care: Patients are monitored every 15-30 minutes for up to 6 hours post-procedure, then Q1 or Q2 for up to 24 hours. If these patients remain stable, they are discharged home on post-operative day (POD) 1. Proposed Intervention: Enrolled patients will be randomized to Q1 or Q2 neurochecks following the institutionally required 6 hours of stable neurological and vascular checks. Once randomized, patients will undergo placement of electroencephalogram (EEG) with video, electrooculogram, and chin lead. The video EEG will be in place for at least 8 hours to include the overnight (10PM-6AM) time period. Following completion of the recording, the signals obtained will be reviewed by a blinded polysomnographic sleep technician for sleep characteristics including quantitative assessments of wakefulness, deep (N3) sleep, REM sleep, sleep efficiency, and sleep fragmentation and arousals. On POD1, patients and their nurse will fill out the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire to rate subjective sleep quality.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALNeurocheck frequency

Randomized to hourly or every-other-hour examinations

Sponsors

University of California, San Diego
Lead SponsorOTHER
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
CollaboratorNIH

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 100 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

a. Adult patients who are status post uncomplicated elective coiling of unruptured cerebral aneurysm.

Exclusion criteria

1. Patients with past or current intracranial injury or disease. 2. Patients with known flow-limiting pathology of carotid arteries, vertebral arteries, or intracranial arteries. 3. Incomplete resolution of aneurysm. 4. Known sleep disorders (e.g., insomnia) 5. Pregnancy. 6. Incarceration. 7. Inability to communicate in English 8. Cognitive impairment or lack of decision-making capacity. 9. Ongoing sedation. 10. Mechanical ventilation

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Sleep efficiencyWithin 24 hours of enrollmentRatio of total sleep time compared to time in bed, reported as a percentage

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
WakefulnessWithin 24 hour of enrollmentBlinded quantitative assessment of time spent awake
REM SleepWithin 24 hour of enrollmentBlinded quantitative assessment of time spent in REM sleep
Deep SleepWithin 24 hour of enrollmentBlinded quantitative assessment of time spent in deep sleep
ArousalsWithin 24 hour of enrollmentBlinded quantitative assessment of number of arousals (as defined by American Academy of Sleep Medicine)
Sleep quality (subjective)Within 24 hour of enrollmentAs measured by Richards Campbell Sleep Questionnaire

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Sep 5, 2026