Neurologic Intensive Care

The Neurological / Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit

Section Head

Michael N. Diringer, MD

The department of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis offers two UCNS certified positions per year for a two-year fellowship program in Neurocritical Care based on the curriculum outlined by the Neurocritical Care Society. Eligible physicians should plan on having completed residency training in Neurology, Neurological Surgery, Internal Medicine, or Anesthesiology.

The Neurology/Neurosurgery Intensive Care unit (NNICU) is a world-class, state-of-the-art 20-bed facility located in Barnes-Jewish Hospital, recently ranked as the eight best hospitals in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report. The hospital has over 1,200 beds and is one of the main referral centers of the Midwest. Over 1,900 patients are admitted to the NNICU each year, including over 150 with subarachnoid hemorrhage and almost 200 with intracerebral hemorrhage. The NNICU is equipped with continuous telemetry, an advanced portable CT scanner, non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring (LiDCO), and fiber optic bronchoscopy. Care is enhanced through close collaborative relationships with Neurology, Neurosurgery and Interventional Neuroradiology.

The NNICU is headed by a previous president of the Neurocritical Care Society, Dr. Michael N Diringer, and staffed by a team of five dedicated neurointensivists from the Washington University School of Medicine, ranked as the #4 medical school in the country. The NNICU has long been the focus of an NIH-funded clinical program that has produced widely recognized research. Washington University is one of 8 academic centers funded as part the NIH Specialized Programs of Translational Research in Acute Stroke (SPOTRIAS) Network. The unit is in the unique position of having a dedicated research PET scanner located within the ICU, which allows studying of the cerebral physiology of the most critically ill patients. Research productivity continues to increase and we have earned the "Best Scientific Abstract Award" from the annual meeting of the Neurocritical Care Society for the last three years, consecutively.