BMJ 1995;310:341-342 (11 February)

Editorials

The persistent vegetative state

Information on prognosis allows decisions to be made on management

Patients in a vegetative state seem to be awake with their eyes open but show no evidence of awareness.1 They do not interact with others and make no purposeful or voluntary responses to visual, auditory, tactile, or noxious stimuli. They are able to breathe spontaneously, and they retain their gag, cough, sucking, and swallowing reflexes. Sleep-wake cycles are preserved, and so are the hypothalamic and brain stem autonomic responses. They are incontinent of urine and faeces, but they may retain their cranial nerve, spinal, and primitive reflexes. Inconsistent non-purposive movements occur, notably facial grimacing and chewing; they make sounds; and they may show inconsistent auditory and oculomotor orienting reflexes to peripheral sounds or movement. The diagnosis of a vegetative state is not tenable if there is any degree of voluntary movement, sustained visual pursuit, consistent and reproducible visual fixation, or . . . [Full text of this article]


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