Persistent vegetative state

A persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a condition of patients with severe brain damage in whom coma has progressed to a state of wakefulness without detectable awareness. There is controversy in both the medical and legal fields as to whether this condition is irreversible.

Related Topics:
Brain - Coma - Awareness

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The syndrome was first described 1940 by Ernst Kretschmer after whom it also has been called Kretschmer syndrome. (Das apallische Syndrom, in .Neurol.Psychiat, 169,576-579 (1940)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The term was coined in 1972 by Scottish neurosurgeon Bryan Jennett and American neurologist Fred Plum to describe a syndrome that seemed to have been made possible by medicine's increased capacities to keep patients' bodies alive. http://assets.cambridge.org/052144/1587/sample/0521441587ws.pdf

Related Topics:
1972 - Scottish - Neurosurgeon - American - Neurologist - Medicine

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

PVS is also known as cortical death, although it is not the same as coma or brain death.

Related Topics:
Cortical - Coma - Brain death

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Patients in a persistent vegetative state are usually considered to be unconscious and unaware. They may experience sleep-wake cycles, or be in a state of chronic wakefulness. They may exhibit some behaviors that can be construed as arising from partial consciousness, such as grinding their teeth, swallowing, smiling, shedding tears, grunting, moaning, or screaming without any apparent external stimulus. They are unresponsive to external stimuli, except, possibly, pain stimuli. Few people have been reported to recover from PVS. Some authorities hold that PVS is, in fact, irreversible, and that the reportedly recovered patients were not suffering from true PVS. In the United States, it is estimated that there may be as many as 15,000 patients who are in a persistent vegetative state.{{an|uspvs}}

Related Topics:
Unconscious - Sleep - Stimulus - United States

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nonetheless, some dispute still remains over the reliability of PVS diagnosis, particularly when a limited number of physicians (or physicians without experience in the area of PVS) make the diagnosis. One study of 40 patients in the United Kingdom considered that 43% of those patients classed as in a PVS were misdiagnosed and another 33% able to recover whilst the study was underway. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/313/7048/13

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~