Being in a comatose or vegetative state is a result of brain injury or damage. One of the tools constantly used to determine the response of patients in a coma is the Glasgow Coma Scale. This scale is one of the commonly occurring measure in the literatures reviewed in this paper. As a way to improve health care delivery, studies have been made to find ways on how to increase changes of good prognosis to patients considered to be in a coma. One of the ways is sensory stimulation. Sensory stimulation is simply arousing the senses to trigger a response. This is helpful so that the reticular activating system of the brain will be aroused.
Scholarly abstracts and articles were reviewed to determine the impact of sensory stimulation in patients with the conclusion that, yes, it does have an impact on comatose patients. Whether or not it will be implemented as part of the healthcare system’s regular policies is still debatable, as there is still a need for further studies to firmly establish the effect of the programme to comatose patients. Introduction Coma or vegetative state is described using the Glasgow Scale. This scale measures a patient’s eye opening response, verbal response and motor response.
A patient that scores anything from 3 to 8 is considered to have slipped in a coma. According to Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield Medical Policy on sensory stimulation of brain-injured patients in coma or vegetative state, “Each year, an estimated two million people sustain head injuries. According to the Traumatic Coma Data Bank, 52% of hospitalized survivors of severe head trauma regain consciousness within one year post-injury and 40% of the survivors show improvement in physical impairments within six months. ” (2006) Maiese describes the vegetative state as the absence of responsiveness because of cerebral hemisphere dysfunction.
This happens when the Reticular Activating System remains functional, but the cortex is severely damaged. Because of this, wakefulness and interaction with the environment through reflexes are possible, but awareness of self is absent as there is lack of cognitive function. (2008) Because only cognitive function is compromised, journals and studies have been made to find out the relationship of sensory stimulation and recovery of comatose patient. This paper examines whether or not sensory stimulation has an effect on Comatose Patients.