A dissociation between the absence of behavioral responses to motor commands and the evidence of brain activation in response to these commands in EEG recordings was found in 15% of patients in a consecutive series of patients with acute brain injury.

A total of 16 of 104 unresponsive patients had brain activation detected by EEG at a median of 4 days after injury. The condition in 8 of these 16 patients and in 23 of 88 patients without brain activation improved such that they were able to follow commands before discharge.

A prospective, consecutive series of patients were studied in a single ICU who had acute brain injury from a variety of causes and who were unresponsive to spoken commands, including some patients with the ability to localize painful stimuli or to fixate on or track visual stimuli.

Read More