Seizure activity may be present but not be clinically evident.Traditionally, a vegetative state that lasts > 1 month is considered to be a persistent vegetative state. Follow
The reticular activating system controls whether a person is awake (wakefulness).
Jan Grzebski, a 65-five-year-old Polish Railway worker, … Last full review/revision Jun 2019| Content last modified Jun 2019
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Please confirm that you are not located inside the Russian FederationThe link you have selected will take you to a third-party website. Rarely, improvement occurs late; after 5 years, about 3% of patients recover the ability to communicate and comprehend, but even fewer can live independently; no patients regain normal function.If a vegetative state persists, most patients die within 6 months of the original brain damage.
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If people do recover, they are likely to be severely disabled.Recovery from a vegetative state is unlikely after 1 month if the cause was anything other than a head injury.
A vegetative state is when a person is awake but showing no signs of awareness.
However, a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state does not imply permanent disability because in very rare cases (eg, after traumatic brain injury), patients can improve, reaching a minimally conscious state or a higher level of consciousness.However, any disorder that results in brain damage can cause a vegetative state.
Absence of awareness can only be inferred by lack of responsiveness to the environment and not as lack of consciousness that we may not be able to detect by behavioural measures.
Typically, a vegetative state occurs because the function of the brain stem and diencephalon resumes after coma, but cortical function does not.In the minimally conscious state, unlike the vegetative state, there is evidence that patients are aware of themselves and/or their environment.
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They cannot speak, follow commands, move their limbs purposefully, or move to avoid a painful stimulus.Most people in a vegetative state have lost all capacity for awareness, thought, and conscious behavior. The vegetative state can arise from all sorts of mishaps that lead to brain injury, from a car accident or stroke, to drowning, choking, a sports or military accident.
People who have some awareness may be in a An imaging test, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT), is done to check for disorders that may be causing the problem, especially those that can be treated. View All Procedures >
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The limbs may move, but the only purposeful motor responses that occur are primitive (eg, grasping an object that contacts the hand). Lumbar Puncture
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Diffusion-weighted MRI is becoming the preferred imaging modality for following ongoing ischemic changes in the brain.Positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) can be used to assess cerebral function (rather than brain anatomy).
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John is not the first person to have made a seemingly miraculous recovery from a coma or vegetative state.
However, neuroimaging is indicated to rule out treatable disorders.The vegetative state must be distinguished from the minimally conscious state. View All News >
It can be localized to a single region of the brain, or diffuse, affecting large areas or all of the brain. The Manual was first published as the Merck Manual in 1899 as a service to the community. The Spinal Cord
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The extent of patients' actual awareness is not yet known. Click here for the Professional Version
Coma and Impaired Consciousness