[Neuropsychological and mental profiles in severe post-traumatic diffuse brain lesions. 103 cases]

By studying a series of 103 head severe injured patients who survived and were not vegetative, following post-traumatic diffuse brain damage with clinical signs of axial impairment, the authors stress the importance of using a neuropsychological assessment in order to approach the outcome quality, that the common outcome scales cannot disclose by themselves. They are leading to be careful with regard to the disorders specificity and the merely traumatic origin of sequelae. Moreover they stress the difficulty in predicting the morbidity during the acute stage and only retain the quality of the awake stage and the ventricular size evaluated 3 months following the trauma, as reliable predicting factors. The results point out the disorders heterogeneity observed by that type of head injured patients, despite of the striking constancy of memory defect.