defining the patient outcome and decision making about allocation of our limited fund and technology for comatose patients depends on our knowledge about frequency and outcome of various coma etiologies. we determined the various coma causes frequency and one-month outcome of non traumatic coma. . in addition the co existence of the primary neurologic signs with the one-month outcome of non tra...

Although the concept of brain death has been widely accepted, the criteria required for making the diagnosis remain controversial. This prospective study was undertaken to examine the reliability of a set of clinical criteria adopted in Taiwan. One hundred and forty deeply comatose patients (101 men, 39 women; mean age 49.5 (SD 17.6) years) requiring ventilation were studied. Seventy three pati...

INTRODUCTION In blunt trauma, comatose patients (Glasgow Coma Scale score 3 to 8) with a negative comprehensive cervical spine (CS) computed tomography assessment and no apparent spinal deficit, CS clearance strategies (magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] and prolonged cervical collar use) are controversial. METHODS We conducted a literature review to delineate risks for coma, CS instability, pr...

Cardiac arrest causes generalized ischaemia/hypoxia, and subsequent resuscitation inflicts reperfusion injury, the pathology of which is not fully understood. Moreover, predicting the prognosis of comatose, post-cardiac arrest patients is a complex clinical challenge. We hypothesized that the extent of complement activation might be a reliable predictor of mortality in this population. Forty-si...

In anoxic coma, myoclonic status epilepticus and other nonreactive epileptiform patterns are considered as signs of poor prognosis. We report the case of a good recovery in a prolonged comatose myoclonic status epilepticus (MSE) after a cardiac arrest (CA) treated with mild therapeutic hypothermia (TH) in a patient who had undergone a bone marrow transplantation for Hodgkin's lymphoma. This cas...

BACKGROUND Critically ill patients may develop muscle weakness or paralysis during the course of sepsis and multiple-organ failure. We studied peripheral nerve and muscle disorders (NMD) in comatose patients. METHOD Comatose patients who developed paralysis associated with absent deep-tendon reflexes had electroneuromyography (ENMG) and muscle-nerve biopsy specimens taken. Onset and duration ...