An Overview of Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS): What to do in the first hour of a neurological emergency?

Abstract

Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) is a comprehensive educational program designed to help first-line physicians, nurses, and other caregivers of various backgrounds for common neurological emergencies, including basic resuscitative procedures, intracranial pathophysiology, and individual neurological and neurosurgical conditions. Focusing on the first critical hour of neuroemergencies, ENLS demonstrates a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach and provides a consistent set of protocols, practical checklists, decision points, and suggested communication to use during patient management. Thirteen key topics directly relevant to neurocritical care were selected and co-chaired by neurointensivists and emergency physicians. Debuted at 2012 Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) conference, this program was published in Neurocritical Care journal and is hosted on the NCS website, as is the training and certification course. At the 2013 NCS conference, train-the-trainer course was held to facilitate an on-site ENLS class worldwide. Supported by the significant advancement seen in the field of emergency neurology, a new version of ENLS was released in 2015. In the second version, prehospital and pediatric sections were included in each module where appropriate, and a new module, ENLS: Pharmacotherapy was added. The knowledge gained during ENLS training will help to manage neurologic emergencies and to contribute to obtain better outcome.