title: [Prognosis of severe head injury in childhood: from the viewpoint of brain plasticity].
abstract: We investigated prognosis of 12 children with severe head injury, whose Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was less than 8 during the acute period. We divided the cases into two groups according to the age of incidence: less than 4 years (6 cases) and more than 4 years (6 cases). We examined the acute conditions (cause, type of the lesion, GCS, period of consciousness loss) and the present status (disability, intelligence quotient: IQ, functional independence measure: FIM). We used IQ and FIM scores for the indices to assess prognosis, and compared those two groups. IQ and FIM scores were better in the group whose onset was under 4 years. This difference was thought to be related to the greater plasticity and to the rehabilitation effect in younger brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Kanagawa Rehabilitation Center, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurihara
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kumagai
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Noda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D011379:Prognosis