HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Noirhomme, Q. Articles by Laureys, S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Noirhomme, Q. Articles by Laureys, S. Topic Collections Relevant Article

A twitch of consciousness: defining the boundaries of vegetative and minimally conscious states

Coma Science Group, Cyclotron Research Centre and Neurology Department, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

Correspondence to:
Professor Steven Laureys, Coma Science Group, Cyclotron Research Centre and Neurology Department, University of Liège, Sart Tilman B30, 4000 Liège, Belgium; steven.laureys@ulg.ac.be

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Some patients awaken from their coma but only show reflex motor activity. This condition of wakeful (eyes open) unawareness is called the vegetative state. In 2002, a new clinical entity coined "minimally conscious state" defined patients who show more than reflex responsiveness but remain unable to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Emergence from the minimally conscious state is defined by functional recovery of verbal or non-verbal communication.¹ Our empirical medical definitions aim to propose clearcut borders separating disorders of consciousness such as coma, vegetative state and minimally conscious state but clinical reality shows that these boundaries can often be fuzzy (fig 1). Recent clinical, electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies are shedding light on these challenging limits of consciousness encountered following severe acute brain damage.

View larger version (23K):   Figure 1 Drawing sharp borders behaviourally, defining the progressive transitions from coma, to vegetative state, to minimally conscious state, to emergence from the minimally conscious state, remains . . . [Full text of this article]