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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Critical Care
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1499330
This article is part of the Research Topic Integrative Approaches to Acute Brain Injury: Vascular, Electrical, and Metabolic Interactions View all articles

An Open Window: The Crucial Role of the Gut-Brain Axis in Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Post-Neurocritical Illness

Provisionally accepted
Victoria Ronan Victoria Ronan *
  • Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Among patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, approximately 10% are discharged with a new functional morbidity. For those who were admitted with a neurocritical illness, the number can be as high as 60%. The most common diagnoses for a neurocritical illness admission include traumatic brain injury, status epilepticus, post-cardiac arrest, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, meningo/encephalitis, and stroke. The gut-brain axis is crucial to childhood development, particularly neurodevelopment. Alterations on either side of the bidirectional communication of the gut-brain axis have been shown to alter typical development and have been associated with autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and learning disabilities, among others. For those patients who have experienced a direct neurologic insult, subsequent interventions may contribute to dysbiosis, which could compound injury to the brain. Increasing data suggests the existence of a critical window for both gut microbiome plasticity and neurodevelopment in which interventions could help or could harm and warrant further investigation.

    Keywords: Neurocritical illness, gut-brain axis, microbiome, outcomes, pediatric neurocritical care, neurodevelopmental outcome

    Received: 20 Sep 2024; Accepted: 24 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ronan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Victoria Ronan, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States

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