Methods for awakening comatose patients

It is common for patients to fall into coma clinically, and the causes of coma are also varied. For comatose patients, it is important to promote early awakening. Therefore, it is important to understand the methods of awakening comatose patients. In general, comprehensive treatment can be carried out through high cervical spinal cord electrical stimulation, and in addition, hyperbaric oxygen chambers and some methods of traditional Chinese medicine can be used as auxiliary treatment methods.

Methods for awakening comatose patients

Our treatment is a comprehensive one with "high cervical spinal cord electrical stimulation" as the core and supplemented by hyperbaric oxygen, traditional Chinese medicine and other related treatments. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a method of treating diseases by implanting electrodes into the spinal canal to stimulate the spinal cord and nerves with pulsed current. It was first clinically applied by Shealy et al. in 1967. In clinical practice, the electrodes were placed at the C3-C4 level. It was found that electrical stimulation of the cervical spinal cord could significantly increase blood flow to the patient's cerebral hemispheres, improve cerebral blood flow and increase glucose metabolism. This mechanism may be related to the activation of vasoactive centers in the brainstem reticular formation by electrical stimulation, or it may be related to the reduction of sympathetic nerve tone by electrical stimulation of the cervical spinal cord.

Clinical manifestations

In terms of clinical manifestations, the patient is in a state of catatonia, with no conscious response to external stimuli, and only retains the most basic life functions such as breathing, nutritional metabolism, excretion and secretion, as well as certain reflexes, such as light reflex, corneal reflex and pain avoidance. (1) Loss of voluntary movement, and sometimes the limbs have a flexion escape reaction to painful stimulation. Therefore, this type of patient cannot move or change position on their own and can only lie in bed and must be cared for and looked after by others. (2) Intelligence, thought, will, emotion and other purposeful activities have been lost; the eyelids can be opened, but the eyeballs show purposeless movements. The patient cannot speak or understand language, and sometimes even if the eyes can focus, they cannot recognize. (3) Loss of the ability to actively eat and drink, inability to express hunger or fullness, and sometimes swallowing, chewing, and teeth grinding. (4) Incontinence