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356 Plum and Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma

Table 9–10 Grading System for Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

 

 

Presence of any

Grade

GCS Score

Motor Deficit

 

 

 

I

15

None

II

14–15

None

III

14–13

Present

IV

12–7

Present or absent

V

6–3

Present or absent

World Federation of Neurological Surgeons score is indexed by Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and evidence of identifiable motor deficits.

From the World Federation of Neurological Surgeons,51 with permission

However, as many as one-half of the patients presenting with grades I or II deteriorate from vasospasm, rebleeding, hydrocephalus, or brain edema. About 10% (range 3% to 17%) of patients die before reaching medical attention and another 10% prior to hospital evaluation. The overall mortality is 40% to 50%.53

GCS is a good predictor of outcome from SAH if the patient’s age, the amount of blood on CT scan, the location of the aneurysm (worse for posterior circulation sites compared with anterior circulation),53 and secondary complications following the initial rupture are also factored in. A high percentage of patients with grades IV and V die from secondary complications if they remain in coma for 2 weeks or more.

Rebleeding of an aneurysm causing coma and depression or loss of brainstem reflexes carries a mortality rate of 50%. In one study, bilateral loss of pupillary responses carried a 95% mortality rate. Electrophysiologic measurements have also shown some utility in the prognosis of SAH; loss of BAERs and SSEPs correlate with poor grades on examination.54,55

Central Nervous System Infection

Coma was present on admission in 14% of 696 patients with bacterial meningitis56 (see also page 262). Obtundation on admission was a significant risk factor for death or a GOS less than 4, as were age older than 60 years, hypotension, seizures within 24 hours (often associated with a low serum sodium), and cere-

brospinal fluid (CSF) abnormalities including decreased glucose concentration or elevation of the CSF protein (greater than or equal to 250 mg/dL). In most cases, death was a result of herniation, occasionally following an illadvised lumbar puncture. Some investigators have suggested that the presence of coma is the best predictor of morbidity from acute meningitis.57 Coma is often the result of increased ICP resulting from alteration of the blood-barrier by toxins (vasogenic edema), impaired resorption of CSF (interstitial edema), or venous or arterial occlusions (infarction with cytotoxic edema).58 A brain abscess causing coma also has a poor prognosis (GOS less than 4)59; herniation is the principal cause of coma with a 60% mortality rate.60

Acute Disseminated

Encephalomyelitis

Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) (see also page 366) is a monophasic autoimmune demyelinating disease most commonly affecting children and young adults that follows viral or bacterial illnesses or may arise postvaccination.61 Although prognosis for ADEM has historically been considered poor, current experience reflects that most patients (range 55% to 90% across studies) will recover fully or with minor neurologic disabilities. The improved prognosis may reflect either the increased frequency of diagnosis of relatively mild cases, which often can be demonstrated on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or perhaps the tendency to treat patients with corticosteroids. Most patients with ADEM improve within 6 months, although many documented cases showed longer recovery times.

Hepatic Coma

Hepatic coma develops either as an inexorable stage in progressive hepatic failure or as a more reversible process in patients with portal systemic shunts when increased loads of nitrogenous substances are suddenly presented into the circulation (see Chapter 5). Prognosis in hepatic coma depends on the cause, the acuteness and severity of the liver failure, and the presence or absence of dysfunction of other organs. The prognosis is far worse in fulminant

Consciousness, Mechanisms Underlying Outcomes, and Ethical Considerations

357

hepatic failure than in coma associated with chronic cirrhosis or portacaval shunting. Among patients with nontraumatic coma, those with hepatic encephalopathy demonstrated the best chance for recovery (33%).4

Survival also correlates with age in patients with infectious and serum hepatitis. Patients with chronic hepatocellular disease often drift in and out of encephalopathy, a situation that can be managed by correction of intercurrent processes such as infection or reduction of circulating nitrogenous load. If no exogenous factor can be identified, the presence of encephalopathy is far more ominous and correlates with high mortality; approximately 50% of patients with cirrhosis die within 1 year of demonstrating encephalopathy.62

Depressant Drug Poisoning

Most fatal intentional depressant drug poisonings occur outside the hospital. Once such patients reach treatment, experienced centers worldwide generally report an overall mortality among patients with altered consciousness of less than 1% (Table 9–7). The death rate climbs to approximately 5% in those with grade 3 to 4 coma. The mortality can be substantially higher when institutions treat only small numbers of patients or lack experience or proper facilities. Adverse prognostic factors in depressant drug coma include an advanced age, the presence of complicating medical illnesses (especially systemic infections, hepatic insufficiency, and heart failure), and lengthy coma. Alkaline diuresis (for phenobarbital), hemodialysis, and charcoal hemoperfusion all have been reported to shorten coma and improve prognosis for patients with severe poisoning, especially from phenobarbital. Barring unexpected complications, patients recovering from depressant drug poisoning suffer no residual brain damage even after prolonged coma lasting 5 days or more. Rare exceptions to this rule occur in overdose patients who suffer aspiration pneumonia or cardiac arrest (e.g., during tracheal or gastric intubation). A small number of patients develop cutaneous pressure sores or pressure neuropathies from prolonged periods of immobility during the period of immobile coma before the victim is found and brought to hospital; this may be particularly common with barbiturate overdoses.

VEGETATIVE STATE

The vegetative state (also called coma vigil or apallic state) denotes the recovery of a crude cycling of arousal states heralded by the appearance of ‘‘eyes-open’’ periods in an unresponsive patient.63 Very few patients remain in eyes-closed coma for more than 10 to 14 days; vegetative behavior usually replaces coma by that time. Patients in VS, like comatose patients, show no evidence of awareness of self or their environment, but do retain brainstem regulation of cardiopulmonary function and visceral autonomic regulation. The term persistent vegetative state is now commonly reserved for patients remaining in that state for at least 30 days (see ANA Committee on Ethical Affairs 1993). As indicated in the paragraphs below, there are no clear criteria for determining when PVS becomes permanent.

One reason for the inability to predict permanence early in the course of PVS is that patients usually have badly damaged cerebral hemispheres combined with a relatively intact brainstem. Such a combination during the early days of illness causes coma with relatively good brainstem function, a picture similar to patients with reversible cerebral injury.

Since the publication of the third edition of Stupor and Coma, guidelines to aid construction of prognosis in VS have advanced greatly.64–66 The Multisociety Task Force on PVS,64,65 a joint commission composed of neurologists, neurosurgeons, and other specialists, organized a comprehensive review of outcomes of patients with prolonged VS using GOS criteria. Outcomes of 434 adult and 106 pediatric patients with TBI and 169 adult and 45 pediatric patients with nontraumatic etiologies were assessed. Figure 9–4 displays data from the TBI group for adults. For patients in VS for at least 1 month, 52% had recovered consciousness at 1 year postinjury (some 33% of the patients had recovered earlier than 3 months from the time of injury). If adult TBI patients remained in VS at 3 months, the percentage recovering consciousness at 1 year dropped to 35%, and to 16% for VS lasting at least 6 months. For pediatric patients with a TBIinduced VS for 1 month, 62% recovered consciousness at 1 year; if VS persisted for 3 months, this percentage dropped only to 56%, and to 32% for patients in VS for at least 6

Table 9–11. Prognosis of Vegetative State (VS) in Traumatic and Anoxic Brain Injury

 

 

 

 

Dead (%)

 

VS (%)

Conscious (%)

 

Independent (%)

 

 

N

 

CI (99%)

 

CI (99%)

CI (99%)

 

CI (99%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Age

TBI*

ABI*

 

TBI

ABI

 

TBI

ABI

TBI

ABI

 

TBI

ABI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VS at 1 Month

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adults

434

169

33

53

15

32

 

52

15

24

4

Children

106

45

9

22

29

65

 

62

13

27

6

VS at 3 Months

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adults

218

77

35

46

30

47

 

35

8

16

1

 

 

 

 

(27–43)

(31–61)

 

(22–38)

(32–62)

(27–44)

(2–19)

 

(10–22)

(0–4)

Children

50

31

14

3

30

94

 

56

3

32

0

 

 

 

 

(1–27)

(0–11)

 

(13–47)

(82–100)

(37–74)

(0–11)

 

(15–49)

 

VS at 6 Months

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adults

123

50

32

28

52

72

 

16

0

4

0

 

 

 

 

(40–64)

(12–44)

 

(40–64)

(56–88)

(9–27)

 

 

(0–9)

 

Children

28

30

14

0

54

97

 

32

3

11

0

 

 

 

 

(30–78)

 

 

(30–78)

(89–100)

(12–58)

(0–11)

 

(0–26)

 

*TBI, traumatic brain injury; ABI, anoxic brain injury. Adapted from Jennet66 and the Multisociety Task Force.65

Adults

Traumatic Injury (N = 434)

Nontraumatic Injury (N = 169)

 

100

 

 

100

Patients

80

 

Conscious

80

 

 

 

60

 

 

60

40

 

Dead

40

of

 

 

 

%

20

 

 

20

 

 

PVS

 

 

 

 

 

0

 

 

0

 

1

3

6

12

 

 

 

 

Children

Traumatic Injury (N = 106)

 

100

 

 

100

of Patients

80

 

Conscious

80

 

 

 

60

 

 

60

40

 

Dead

40

%

20

 

 

20

 

 

PVS

 

 

 

 

 

0

 

 

0

 

1

3

6

12

Months after Injury

 

 

Conscious

 

 

 

Dead

 

 

 

PVS

 

1

3

6

12

 

 

Nontraumatic Injury (N = 45)

 

 

 

Conscious

 

 

 

Dead

 

 

 

PVS

 

1

3

6

12

 

 

Months after Injury

 

Figure 9–4. Outcome for patients in a persistent vegetative state after a traumatic or nontraumatic injury. See also Table 9–11. (From the Multisociety Task Force,64 with permission.)

Consciousness, Mechanisms Underlying Outcomes, and Ethical Considerations

359

months. The outcome of ‘‘conscious’’ per se does not reflect level of disability. However, the Task Force review indicated that for adults, within the 52% of patients recovering consciousness after 1 month in VS, only 24% became independent by GOS criteria. This figure dropped to 16% for VS lasting 3 months and to only 4% if taken out to at least 6 months.

Not surprisingly, nontraumatic VS carries a far less optimistic prognosis. Figure 9–4 shows comparison percentages for adult and pediatric patients with nontraumatic VS. For adult VS patients remaining in VS at 1 month, only 15% regained consciousness (with only 4% independent by GOS). These percentages worsened to 8% and 0% for patients remaining in a nontraumatic VS for 3 and 6 months, respectively.

Based on these data, the Task Force paper suggested that VS after 12 months following TBI, or 3 months following an anoxic injury, should be considered essentially permanent. However, it is important to recognize that a small number of patients may recover from VS beyond these time points.67–69 Such late recovery past the cutoffs for permanent VS from both anoxic and traumatic etiologies has generally been to levels of severe disability, including the minimally conscious state.66 Nevertheless, application of these statistics to individual cases can be risky, unless independent evidence of the mechanism of brain injury is available, as rare cases of late recovery continue to be reported. The uncertainty in prognosis in such cases highlights the need for better methods, such as direct measurements of cerebral function, to help identify cases where recovery is likely.

Mortality is very high within the first year; approximately one-third of patients die.64,65 If

patients remain alive after a year, mortality per year is low and some patients may continue to live for many years.66 Plum and Schiff studied one patient who had remained in PVS for 25 years (see Figure 9–8). Most patients in VS die from infection of the pulmonary system or urinary tract.

Clinical, Imaging, and

Electrodiagnostic Correlates of

Prognosis in the Vegetative State

A few clinical signs or confirmatory tests, including those negative predictors for coma in

general (as reviewed previously), help predict the prognosis of VS. As noted, abnormal SSEPs reliably indicate cortical damage and a high probability of remaining in VS following anoxic and traumatic brain injuries. However, normal evoked responses do not predict recovery. In a study of 124 patients in VS or MCS following TBI, three variables predicted recovery of ability to follow commands: (1) initial score on the Disability Rating Scale (DRS), (2) rate of change on the DRS measure in the first 2 weeks of observation, and (3) the time of admission to a rehabilitation program following injury.70

Several structural and functional correlates of VS have been examined. A prospective study of MRI imaging correlates of 80 patients remaining in VS following TBI at 6 to 8 weeks (with MRI and clinical follow-up at 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months) found that 42 patients who remained in VS at 1 year showed that structural injuries within the corpus callosum and dorsolateral brainstem significantly predicted nonrecovery (214-fold and sevenfold higher probability of nonrecovery from VS, respectively, based on adjusted odds ratios accounting for age, GCS, pupillary dysfunction, and number of brain lesions).71 Overall, this model achieved a classification rate of 87.5% for identifying patients who would not recover past VS.

Quantitative fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) studies measuring resting cerebral metabolism have consistently demonstrated that global cerebral metabolism is markedly reduced to 40% to 50% of normal metabolic rates in most VS patients (see page 365). Unfortunately, early identification of low metabolic activity is not a clear predictor of outcome and some patients have recovered consciousness despite significant remaining abnormalities in resting metabolic level.72 The N- acetylaspartate (NAA)-to-creatine (Cr) ratio on magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the thalamus is low in all patients in VS, but lower in those who do not recover73; however, only a few patients have been studied.

Efforts to predict outcome or characterize VS using EEG have been disappointing. EEG studies may remain abnormal as patients improve or, conversely, improve when patients do not.74 Event-related potentials (ERPs) may hold more promise. These potentials require cortical processing of stimuli that can be passively presented to subjects in VS. The responses are long latency with peak activation

360 Plum and Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma

usually several hundred milliseconds after stimulation and are not strictly time locked to the stimulus onset. Long-latency auditory cortical potentials (N100, P150), the P300 response, and the mismatch negativity (MMN) ERPs have each shown some potential for providing evidence of recovery. The P300 response can be elicited by inclusion of an ‘‘oddball’’ tone in an otherwise monotonous presentation of repeated identical tones. The MMN is an early component of the auditory response to the oddball stimulus that is attention independent and reliably induced following the N100 auditory cortex potential, an early primary auditory evoked response. In a study of 346 patients in coma for 12 months with outcomes divided into VS versus all categories better than VS (including MCS), N100 and MMN were strong predictors of recovery past VS; no patient with MMN in this cohort remained in VS. If the electrophysiologic variables were combined with information about the pupillary light reflex, the probability of recovery past VS reached 89.9%.40 However, other studies have raised questions about the specificity of preserved ERP responses75 in VS.

MINIMALLY CONSCIOUS STATE

The minimally conscious state76 identifies a condition of severely impaired consciousness with minimal but definite behavioral evidence of self or environmental awareness. Table 9–12 provides the criteria for the diagnosis of MCS. Like VS, MCS often exists as a transitional state arising during recovery from coma or during the worsening of progressive neurologic disease. In some patients, however, it may be a permanent condition. A few studies have examined differences in outcome between VS and MCS. Giacino and Kalmar reported retrospective findings in 55 VS patients and 49 MCS patients evaluated at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months following either traumatic or nontraumatic injuries.77 Both presented with similar levels of disability at 1 month postinjury. The MCS patients, however, had significantly better outcomes as measured by the Disability Rating Scale compared with outcomes for VS patients at 1 year, particularly in the TBI patients. Strauss and colleagues78 retrospectively studied life expectancy of a large number of children (ages 3 to 15) in VS (N ¼ 564) and

Table 9–12 Aspen Working Group Criteria for the Clinical Diagnosis of the Minimally Conscious State

Evidence of limited but clearly discernible self or environmental awareness on a reproducible or sustained basis, as demonstrated by one or more of the following behaviors:

1.Simple command following

2.Gestural or verbal ‘‘yes/no’’ responses (independent of accuracy)

3.Intelligible verbalization

4.Purposeful behavior including movements or affective behaviors in contingent relation to relevant stimuli. Examples include:

a.Appropriate smiling or crying to relevant visual or linguistic stimuli

b.Response to linguistic content of questions by vocalization or gesture

c.Reaching for objects in appropriate direction and location

d.Touching or holding objects by accommodating to size and shape

e.Sustained visual fixation or tracking as response to moving stimuli

From Giacino et al.,76 with permission.

MCS, dividing the latter into two groups: immobile MCS (N ¼ 705) and mobile MCS (3,806). A significant increase in the percentage of patients still alive at 8 years was noted for the mobile MCS group (81%) compared to theimmobileMCS(65%)ortheVS(63%)group; the latter two were statistically indistinguishable. Lammi and associates79 examined 18 MCS patients 2 to 5 years after injury and found a marked heterogeneity of outcome despite prolonged duration of MCS after TBI. Most of their patients regained functional independence, but there was a poor correlation between duration of MCS and outcome. In general, clinical and electrodiagnostic tests have not yet been developed for use in the diagnosis and prognosis of MCS outside of a research context (see below for discussion).

MCS also includes some forms of the clinical syndrome of akinetic mutism (Box 9–1) and other less well-characterized disorders of consciousness. At least two different identifiable groups of patients are considered exemplars of akinetic mutism. Although occasionally confused with VS, classical akinetic mutism resembles a state of constant hypervigilance. The patients appear attentive and vigilant but

Box 9–1 Akinetic Mutism Versus ‘‘Slow Syndrome’’

The term akinetic mutism originated with Cairns and colleagues.80 They described a young woman who, although appearing wakeful, became mute and rigidly motionless when a craniopharyngiomatous cyst expanded to compress the walls of her third ventricle and the posterior medial-ventral surface of the frontal lobe. The patient appeared to be unconscious; there was no spasticity. After the cyst was drained, she recovered full awareness but possessed no memory of the ‘‘unconscious’’ period. Eye movements were not described in this woman but most documented cases of this type reveal seemingly attentive, conjugate eye movements. Oculocephalic stimulation may elicit some lateral gaze.

Subsequent observations have shown that similar findings can be produced by lesions of the medial-basal prefrontal area, the anterior cingulate cortex, the medial prefrontal regions supplied by the anterior cerebral arteries, and the rostral basal ganglia. A similar syndrome can rarely be a feature of untreated, rigid Parkinson’s disease or prion disease.81

The hyperattentive form of akinetic mutism is typically seen in patients with bilateral lesions of the anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortices, as occurs after rupture of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm.82 The associated injury may sometimes be accompanied by injury to the hypothalamus and anterior pallidum. Castaigne and associates83 and Segarra84 introduced ‘‘akinetic mutism’’ to describe the behavior of patients suffering structural injuries affecting the medial-dorsal thalamus extending into the mesencephalic tegmentum. The patients suffered severe memory loss and demonstrated apathetic behavior. Although such patients exhibit severe global disturbances of consciousness, they are not categorized as minimally conscious because they are capable of communication. To mitigate confusion, we use the term slow syndrome85 to describe patients who appear apathetic and hypersomnolent but are able to move and may speak with understandable words.86 Unlike akinetic mute patients, they are not semi-rigid and lack the appearance of vigilance. Subcortical lesions that may produce the slow syndrome include bilateral lesions of the paramedian anterior or posterior thalamus and basal forebrain; the mesencephalic reticular formation including periaqueductal gray matter, caudate nuclei (or either caudate in isolation), and globus pallidus interna; or selective interruption of the medial forebrain bundle.

A common denominator of akinetic mute states may be damage to the cortico- striato-pallidal-thalamocortical loops that are critical for the function of the frontal lobes.87 The prefrontal cortex is served by a loop including the ventral striatum, ventral pallidum, and mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus; akinetic mutism can result from bilateral damage at any level of this system.87 Similarly, bilateral injury to the nigrostriatal bundle in the lateral hypothalamus may produce a state of akinetic mutism that is reversible with dopaminergic agonists.88 At least partial cognitive function can be recovered following restricted bilateral injuries to the paramedian thalamus and mesencephalon.83,84,89,90

361

362 Plum and Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma

remain motionless with robust preservation of visual tracking in the form of smooth pursuit movements (or optokinetic responses). Limited preservation of brief visual fixation can be accepted in VS, but robust and consistent visual tracking as seen in akinetic mutism is absent in VS.66

Patient 9–2

A 47-year-old right-handed man was brought to the ICU with progressive somnolence and unresponsiveness. Neurologic examination revealed bilateral third nerve palsy, fluctuating bradycardia with hypertension, and extensor posturing to pain. The initial CT scan (Figure 9–5A) revealed a large mass lesion centered on the mesencephalon with surrounding edema. Intracranial lymphoma was suspected and confirmed by biopsy. The patient

received cranial irradiation, IV steroids, and chemotherapy. A posttreatment MRI (Figure 9–5B) demonstrated resolution of mass effect with high signal abnormalities within the upper mesencephalon and hypothalamus. The patient appeared alert but did not initiate communication. He occasionally displayed sudden periods of agitated behavior. Responses to simple questions were markedly delayed, but correct using yes and no answers. Physical examination was notable for waxy flexibility as well as rigidity, and spontaneous movements were minimal and limited to the left upper extremity.

EEG showed periods of frontal intermittent rhythmic delta activity and mild generalized slowing. An HmPAO single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan revealed diffuse profound frontal bihemispheric hypoperfusion (left greater than right, see Figure 9–5C). The patient’s clinical state did not improve prior to death from a systemic infection.

Figure 9–5. Akinetic mutism seen in Patient 9–2. (A) Computed tomography scan demonstrating large mesencephalic mass with surrounding edema. (B) Series of magnetic resonance axial images following treatment with steroids and reduction of mesencephalic lesion. Middle image shows high-signal abnormalities in the ventral midbrain. (C) Single photon emission tomography imaging demonstrates diffuse cerebral hypoperfusion with relative sparing of cerebellar blood flow. (Images courtesy of Drs. Ayeesha Kamal and N. Schiff.)

Consciousness, Mechanisms Underlying Outcomes, and Ethical Considerations

363

Autopsy of brain was normal except for the midbrain, hypothalamus, and left paramedian thalamus, which showed infiltration of lymphoma cells and necrosis in the midline of the midbrain extending rostrally into the left thalamus to involve the intralaminar nuclei and surrounding tissue.

Late Recoveries From the

Minimally Conscious State

Word-of-mouth stories and news reports sometimes claim dramatic recovery from prolonged coma or VS. Invariably, these reports generate wide public interest and much confusion concerning the difference between coma and VS,

as well as between diagnosis and prognosis. The Multisociety Task Force64,65 examined 14

cases from the media and found that the majority of these ‘‘late’’ recoveries from VS fell within their guidelines (i.e., less than 3 months following an anoxic injury or 12 months following a traumatic brain injury in an adult). Nonetheless, as noted above, a few rare, welldocumented late recoveries underscore the statistical nature of the guidelines for prognosis of permanent VS. However, most reports of late recovery from ‘‘coma’’ involve very late transition of MCS patients to emergence (see page 373). There are no data to allow guidelines for the expected duration of MCS. Some MCS patients harbor significant residual capacities as demonstrated by wide fluctuation of cognitive function.91 The term minimally conscious state seems most appropriate; alternatives include minimal responsive state and minimal awareness state.92 Minimal responsiveness as assessed at the bedside may belie considerable cognitive capacities without further evaluation of etiologic mechanisms, including normal cognitive function as present in the locked-in state, discussed below.

LOCKED-IN STATE

A related and important issue is late recovery of consciousness in patients with severe motor and sensory impairment leading to the lockedin or partial locked-in state (condition with severe motor disability approximating the traditional definition). The locked-in state is not

a disorder of consciousness, as reviewed in Chapter 1. Nonetheless, because most cases of the locked-in state are due to a pontine injury, it is common for patients to experience an initial coma (see 93 for an example) or to respond inconsistently during the initial period of the injury similar to MCS. In a survey of 44 lockedin patients, the mean time of diagnosis was 2.5 months after onset; in more than one-half of these cases, a family member and not a physician first recognized the condition.94 Furthermore, investigators working with locked-in patients often report early counseling of withdrawal of care either because of an incorrect diagnosis or based on physician attitudes without a careful and vetted informed consent process that includes a review of the available

information on quality of life obtained from surveys of patients in this condition.94,95 While

it is quite reasonable to doubt that most people would want to trade a normal existence for that of a locked-in patient, the important question is whether a locked-in patient would rather live or die. Quality-of-life assessments administered to locked-in patients provide a source of information for patients and families as do written first-person accounts, several of which have become well known.96 Doble and colleagues95 reported on 5-, 10-, and 20-year survival (83%, 83%, and 40%, respectively) and quality of life in 29 patients. Among several notable findings, these investigators found that 12 patients remained living 11 years after the study onset; seven of these patients described ‘‘satisfaction with life,’’ five were noted to exhibit occasional depressive symptoms, but none held a DNR order. Leon-Carrion and associates94 described quality-of-life measures in more detail in their survey of 44 locked-in patients (Table 9–13). The majority of these patients (86%) described a good capacity to maintain attention, nearly half (47%) described their mood as ‘‘good,’’ most (81%) met with friends at least twice a month, and 30% could maintain sexual relations (Table 9–13).

Quality of life was also assessed in 17 chronic (i.e., more than 1 year) locked-in patients who used eye movements or blinking as a principal mode of communication, lived at home,

and had a mean duration of locked-in state of 6 years (range 2 to 16 years).97,98 Self-scored

perception of mental health (evaluating mental well-being and psychologic distress) and personal general health were not significantly

364 Plum and Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma

Table 9–13 Functional Measurements

in a Cohort of Locked-in Patients

(N¼ 44)

Variable

%

 

 

Cognitive Functioning

 

Level of attention

 

Good

86.0

Tends to sleep

9.0

Normally awake

2.3

Sleeps most of the time

2.3

Can pay attention >15 minutes

95.3

Can watch and follow a

95.3

film on TV

 

Can say what day it is

97.6

Can read

76.7

Has a visual deficit

14.0

Has memory problems

18.6

Emotions and Feelings

 

Mood state

 

Good

47.5

Bad

5.0

Depressed

12.5

Other

35.0

Is more sensitive since onset

85.0

Laughs or cries more easily

87.8

Sexuality

 

Has sexual desire

61.1

Can maintain sexual relations

30.0

Communication

 

Can emit sounds

78.0

Can communicate with or without

65.8

technical aid

 

Social Activities

 

Enjoys going out

73.2

Participates in social activities

14.3

Watches television normally

23.8

Participates in other family activities

61.9

Is accompanied out once or

61.9

twice a week

 

Meets with friends at least twice a

81.0

month

 

 

 

lower than values from age-matched French control subjects. Importantly, perception of mental health and the presence of physical pain correlated with the frequency of suicidal thoughts (r ¼ –0.67 and 0.56, respectively, p < 0.05), indicating the importance of proper pain management in chronic locked-in patients who are frequently undertreated. At present,

there are three European societies for locked- in-patients with a membership exceeding 300 persons (http://alis-asso.fr/).

MECHANISMS UNDERLYING OUTCOMES OF SEVERE BRAIN INJURY: NEUROIMAGING STUDIES AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS

The above discussion details the problems of diagnostic accuracy and prognosis for disorders of consciousness. At present, careful clinical evaluations combined in some instances with structural imaging criteria, or measurements of early cortical sensory responses, remain the foundation for decision making. Available guidelines invariably indicate likelihoods of death or VS as outcomes rather than providing reliable indices of potential for functional recoveries with or without persistent disabilities. In large part this is a consequence of the fact that preserved brainstem function may only herald PVS. Moreover, it is clear that in the aggregate, the clinical neurologic examination and assessments of structural brain integrity provide only limited insight into the neurophysiologic mechanisms of coma, VS, or MCS. This is because the functional impairment of distributed neuronal populations of the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus underlying the conditions often cannot be adequately assessed by these methods. Neuroimaging techniques that can directly assess functional changes within these cerebral networks hold significant promise to ultimately improve diagnostic accuracy and understanding of the pathophysiology of the severely injured brain (see 99 for review).

Expanded use of neuroimaging techniques for evaluating functional outcomes of patients recovering from coma will likely have the greatest impact on the category of severe disability. This broad category includes within its limits patients who, while not permanently unconscious, as in the chronic VS, may nonetheless never regain a capacity to communicate, as well as other patients near the functional borderline of independence in activities of daily living. More than 20 years ago, the third edition of Stupor and Coma commented that the overly broad definition of severe disability needed sig-

Consciousness, Mechanisms Underlying Outcomes, and Ethical Considerations

365

nificant refinement. As discussed above, recent efforts to define MCS are a step in this direction. The significance of identifying the physiologic mechanisms underlying different functional outcomes within the category of severe disability is that this knowledge will lead to a better understanding of the necessary and sufficient neurologic substrates to recover consciousness and varying levels of cognitive capacity. Just as the concept of brain death clarified the concept of death, MCS and other future subdivisions of the category of severe disability will force us to consider the concept of consciousness more precisely.

FUNCTIONAL IMAGING OF THE PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE

Levy and associates100 provided the first experimental evidence supporting the clinical hypothesis that patients in VS were unconscious. Using FDG-PET, seven patients in PVS were compared to three patients in the locked-in state and 18 normal subjects. In PVS patients, cerebral metabolic rates were globally reduced by 50% or more. Regional cerebral blood flow measurements showed a similar but more variable pattern of global reduction. Subsequent studies have confirmed these findings, with an average of less than 50% of normal metabolic rates in most VS patients studied (reduced further to 30% to 40% in cases of hypoxicischemic etiology).101–105 Comparable reduc-

tions are identified during generalized anesthesia106,107 and in stage IV sleep in normal

individuals.108 The small number of patients in the locked-in state (three) in the Levy study had a low average metabolic rate, but recent quantitative FDG-PET studies have demonstrated essentially normal resting metabolic rates in the cerebrum, even acutely.99 Cerebellar metabolic rates were low, consistent with the lack of motor outflow in the locked-in state.98

More sensitive imaging techniques have recently been applied to the evaluation of PVS

patients. They reveal a marked loss of distributed network processing in VS.99,104,109 Ele-

mentary auditory and somatosensory stimuli fail to produce brain activation outside of primary sensory cortices (Figure 9–6). The data suggest multiple functional disconnections along the auditory or somatosensory cortical pathways and support the inference that the

residual cortical activity seen in PVS patients does not reflect awareness. The findings are consistent with evidence of early sensory processing in PVS patients as measured by evoked potential studies, but loss of later components39; they suggest that VS/PVS correlates with failure of sensory information to propagate beyond the earliest stages of cortical processing. Preliminary studies discussed below indicate that MCS patients show wider activation of cortical networks, findings that may help ultimately distinguish the conditions among patients with severe sensory and motor impairments limiting behavioral assessments (e.g., spastic contractions and blindness).

Atypical Behavioral Features in

the Persistent Vegetative State

Stereotyped behavior, typically limbic displays of crying, smiling, or other emotional patterns that are not related to environmental stimuli, occur in some VS patients. Occasionally, other fragments of behavior that may appear semipurposeful, or inconsistently related to environmental stimuli, arise in VS/PVS patients. Neuroimaging studies, including FDG-PET, magnetoencephalography (MEG), and functional MRI (fMRI), have identified residual cerebral circuits underlying such isolated behavioral fragments.105,110,117 One remarkable patient studied had remained in the PVS for 20 years but infrequently expressed single words (typically epithets) not related to environmental stimulation (Figure 9–7C). Two other patients in this group revealed similar isolated metabolic activity that could be correlated with unusual behavioral patterns.105 These data provide novel evidence for the modular organization of the brain and suggest that preservation of residual cerebral activity following severe brain injuries is not random. Regional preservation of cerebral metabolic activity likely reflects both preservation of anatomic connectivity and endogenous neuronal firing patterns of remnant but incomplete networks.

Further study of this patient showed that islands of higher resting brain metabolism included Heschl’s gyrus (Figure 9–8), Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, and the left anterior basal ganglia (caudate nucleus, possibly putamen). Despite limited amounts of remaining left thalamus identified by MRI that expressed