Sequelæ of Closed Head Injuries

The vegetative state – clinical diagnosis

“…They introduced the term because they were generally unhappy about the other terms used at the time. These terms either use categories which were not true, eg, prolonged coma 3 4 or coma vigil5 (when the patients, by definition, were not in coma), or were of specific syndromes, eg, decerebrate dementia,6 parasomnia,7 or akinetic mutism 8. The term apallic syndrome,9still used in Germany, implies lack of the cortex which may not be the case, especially in traumatic injuries.…”