title: Outcome of severe brain injury: a multimodality neurophysiologic study.
abstract: We screened all head-injured trauma patients admitted to Lehigh Valley Hospital during a 2-year period. From 725 screened patients, 69 patients in a coma on the second day after trauma were entered into this study. During the first week, these patients underwent electroencephalography (EEG), evoked potentials, ocular pneumoplethysmography, and transcranial Doppler (TCD) sonography. Clinical examinations were undertaken 2 and 7 days after trauma. Test results were correlated with functional clinical outcome at 6 months. In a multiple regression analysis, EEG was the major independent variable that significantly predicted 6-month outcome based on Glasgow Outcome Scale score. Transcranial Doppler sonography contributed a small additional component. Though EEG was the most significant predictive factor in this neurophysiological battery, it did not add significantly to the predictive power of Glasgow Coma Scale score determined at day 7. These findings suggest that in neurophysiologic testing in this type of patient is not useful in improving predictive outcome data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Allentown, PA 18103, USA.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Rae-Grant
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eckert
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Barbour
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Castaldo
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gee
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Wohlberg
authors.forename: Z S
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003128:Coma / Q000209:etiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000592:standards; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010991:Plethysmography / Q000379:methods; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial / Q000592:standards