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Classification of coma

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Summary

By order of the Head Injuries Committee of the W.F.N.S. the author and his coworkers give definitions of consciousness, clouding of consciousness and unconsciousness or coma. Furthermore they suggest a definition of the termination of unconsciousness, with particular reference to the transition into a stage of clouding of consciousness. Any statistical evaluation and comparison of different materials depend on the use of identical definitions. As an example, it has been shown that the duration of an uninterrupted coma, which can be survived, becomes relatively short if in accordance with the proposed definitions the various stages of clouding of consciousness are excluded from “coma”.

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Author notes

  1. R. A. Frowein

    Present address: Neurochirurgische Universitätsklinik, Köln, Federal Republic of Germany

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    1. R. A. Frowein
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    By order of the Head Injuries Committee of the W.F.N.S. A. de Vasconcellos Marques, R.-P. Vigouroux, J. Brihaye, D. G. Norlen, D. W. Luyendijk, J.-C. Christensen, A. El-Banhawy, R. A. Frowein, E. S. Gurdjian, Ph. Harris, S. Ishii, K. G. Jamieson, S. Lindgren, P. Niemeyer, At. K. Ommaya, I. Oprescu, B. Ramamurthi, A. R. Taylor, E. Zander.

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    Frowein, R.A. Classification of coma. Acta neurochir 34, 5–10 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405858

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