It is currentlyimpossible to predictwhen a comatose patient might become conscious again.
Others, however, remain unconscious for the rest of their lives.
New research suggests that sleep patterns in comatose patients could help predict their chances of waking up.
Researchers discovered a potential correlation between comatose patients' brain activity during sleep and chances of recovery.© DC Studio via Freepik
Families of my patients ask me all the time, will my mother wake up?
How is my mother going to look in three, six, or 12 months?
He is also chief of critical care and hospitalist neurology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
For simplicity, lets call this the complex method.
For example, 19 of the 139 patients without sleep spindles or hidden consciousness still regained consciousness.
Additionally, the study only considers comatose states from recent injuries.
If you think about the ICU environment, it is rather disruptive for a good nights sleep.
There is noise everywhere, alarms going off, clinicians touching them, 24/7.
This is all for a good reason, but its hard to sleep in that environment, Claassen said.
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