[The age-related factor in the pathology of consciousness in craniocerebral trauma]

In children (n = 103), elderly and old persons (n = 42), abnormal consciousness was comparatively studied in the acute period of brain injury. The revealed clinical features were compared with the previously described syndromes of consciousness disorders in young and middle-aged patients. The authors consider it appropriate to identify quantitative (deafening, sopor, coma) and qualitative (obscure consciousness, confusion, and mixed types differing in the ratio of productive to deficiency symptoms). Depressed consciousness was found to be prevalent in children, obscure consciousness was most typical in adults, confusion was common in elderly and old patients. The low presentation of productive disorders and their low association mainly with brain injury in patients who are on the different poles of ontogenesis are explained in the context of the teaching of cerebral functional asymmetry.