OBJECTIVE To assess the inter-observer agreement of the electroencephalogram (EEG) diagnosis of (non-convulsive) seizures in comatose patients. DESIGN/SETTING/PATIENTS Nine clinicians with different levels of experience in clinical neurophysiology were asked to evaluate in a strictly controlled way 90 epochs (10s each) of 30 EEG's of 23 comatose patients admitted to the intensive care unit (I...

BACKGROUND Targeted temperature management is recommended for comatose adults and children after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; however, data on temperature management after in-hospital cardiac arrest are limited. METHODS In a trial conducted at 37 children's hospitals, we compared two temperature interventions in children who had had in-hospital cardiac arrest. Within 6 hours after the retu...

BACKGROUND Patient outcome after serious brain injury is highly variable. Following a period of coma, some patients recover while others progress into a vegetative state (unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) or minimally conscious state. In both cases, assessment is difficult and misdiagnosis may be as high as 43%. Recent advances in neuroimaging suggest a solution. Both functional magnetic reson...

Sudden cardiac death represents a major health problem. In adults, the prevalence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) attended by the emergency medical services (EMS) ranges from 52 to 112 per 100,000 person-years in developed countries [1], whereas the prevalence of adult in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) ranges from 1 to 5 per 1,000 patient admissions [2]. Mortality from cardiac arrest e...

Mortality rates for stroke in 1971, 1974, 1977, and 1980 were obtained for residents of Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania. Hospital case fatality ratios were also obtained in the same 4 years for those discharged with the diagnosis of stroke (ICD 430-438 of the Eighth and Ninth Revisions of the International Classification of Disease) in two large hospitals (greater than 400 beds). Age-a...

Following resuscitation from cardiorespiratory arrest 80% of patients are comatose. Of these patients, 20% will survive and regain consciousness. Is it possible to predict an individual's long term outcome at presentation and alter management accordingly? This review examines the current medical literature and demonstrates it is impossible to predict immediately outcome from hypoxic-ischaemic c...

In 30 comatose head injured patients vestibulo-ocular responses were elicited by caloric stimulation. Inter- and intra-observer agreement of these responses was studied. The responses were shown in the form of a film to ten doctors who classified them into four categories: no reaction, tonic reaction, paradoxical nystagmus and nystagmus. The level of the coefficient Kappa (a chance-corrected me...

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE We report a comatose patient with severe neurological deficits who was without spontaneous language or movement. He had a good response to recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) thrombolysis even though there were no detectable lesions on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). DWI is very sensitive for diagnosing hyperacute ischemic stroke, and rtPA thrombolysis is the ...

We report the case of a 20-year-old patient with a C5 cervical spine fracture and an undetected ligamentous lesion between C1 and C2. Cervical spine lesion protocols and the rates of lesions that are not diagnosed with standard evaluation protocols are reviewed, with particular emphasis on comatose patients. Dynamic studies during the surgical procedure for fixation of the fracture are recommen...

A bilateral loss of short latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) after head trauma or non-traumatic brain damage is normally associated with a deleterious neurological outcome. An adequate recovery in reported in two deeply comatose patients with head trauma or severe hypertensive encephalopathy despite prolonged bilateral loss of SSEPs over days, found in repeated recordings. Hence, a...