Our founding editor, Charles Warlow, wanted Practical Neurology to be the type of journal neurologists would read in the bath. Implicit within this vision is the notion that the journal would be read from cover to cover. Is this still the case? Times have moved on, and nowadays many neurologists read articles they have searched for to address a clinical question—checking up-to-date guidelines or trying to disentangle a challenging clinical case. But this strategy can lead us to miss a trick, though anyone reading this far into the editors’ highlights has already revealed themselves as being wise enough not to fall for this.

Some articles, such as those on general or overarching topics, are unlikely to turn up in a search, and yet can be very helpful. This issue includes several such examples, each written by experienced clinicians or teams of clinicians. In his review ‘Weakness in the intensive care unit’ (page 358), Jon Walters outlines how to approach to this relatively common but often challenging clinical …