Loading...
Patients in a vegetative state (VS) have a very poor prognosis; even when some kind of recovery is achieved, quality of life is very poor. Foremost is the concern that the prognosis be made accurately, as treatment decisions include the possibility of withdrawal of life support. In this prospective clinical study, researchers aimed to identify prognostic markers, recorded in the chronic phase, that are useful in predicting recovery of responsiveness in a cohort of patients in postanoxic VS.
The analysis included 43 inpatients in prolonged anoxic VS (>1 month; 23 women; age range, 12–83). The authors collected data about medical history, clinical findings, and neurophysiologic assessments at study entry. At 24 months, patients were classified…