[Recovery of consciousness after prolonged coma in patients with severe craniocerebral injuries]

The authors specify and describe 7 stages of regaining consciousness by patients who had been in coma from 11 to 180 days, including opening of the eyes; fixation of the eyes on an object; recognition of close relatives; understanding of directly addressed speech; patient's own speech; amnestic confusion; consciousness with all formal signs of being clear. The condition of the patients at these stages is compared with EEG findings suggestive of the functional disintegration of the brain as a system in comatose patients, the vegetative status and the restoration of connections between different departments of the brain corresponding to the recovery of long absent consciousness of patients. It is concluded that at the current stage of medical sciences the maximum duration of coma compatible with the subsequent full recovery of mental activity of the patient under 30 years does not exceed 11 days.