title: Duration of impaired consciousness in relation to side of lesion after severe head injury. NIH Traumatic Coma Data Bank Research Group.
abstract: The relation between hemispheric lateralisation of intracerebral lesion and duration of impaired consciousness was investigated in 43 survivors of severe closed head injury. Duration of impaired consciousness, defined as the time from injury until the obeying of commands, was significantly longer in patients with left hemisphere than right hemisphere lesions. However, the side of intracerebral lesion had no effect on duration of impaired consciousness defined as time from injury until localisation to pain. Use of verbal methods to assess level of consciousness may be responsible for the observation that lesions of the language dominant hemisphere produce greater disturbance of consciousness than similar insults to the right hemisphere.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurosurgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77550.
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Gary
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D003128:Coma / Q000209:etiology*; D003243:Consciousness; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D011859:Radiography; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States