Six clinical reports of persistent but reversible coma

Objective In neurological intensive care unit,nontraumatic and non-cerebrovascular disease coma has a very poor prognosis,even though the consciousness has recovered,functional recovery is usually rare.However,a few patients have good outcome in our unit.This article reports the investigation of these patients.Methods The medical records of all inpatients in our unit during 2005.7~2008.9 was summarized,patients were discriminated according to the standard(1)coma,the Glasgow Coma Scale is 8 or less than 8 on admission;(2)nontraumatic and non-cerebrovascular coma;(3)coma keeps longer than 1 month;(4)better outcome,the Glasgow Coma Scale is 3 or more.The clinical spectrum of patients meeting the standard was evaluated.Results 6 patients met this criteria,4 patients were viral encephalitis including 3 with herpes simplex virus and one with cytomegalovirus leading to nonconvulsive status epilepticus.1 patient was hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and 1 was thyroid crisis encephalopathy.conclusion Following factors are responsible for the persistent but reversible coma.Firstly,primary affection should be actively managed.Secondly,nonconvulsive status epilipticus is readily treatable cause,continuous elecroencephalography monitoring should be employed at once.Thirdly,reversibility from coma may reflect the differene in the brain susceptibility to the original insults.Lastly,neurological intensie care unit plays a ery important role in the recoveries of these patients.