In a recent article in UVAToday, J. Javier Provencio, MD, director of UVA Health’s Nerancy Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, discusses a three-part plan to help physicians and researchers improve patient care and deepen their understanding of coma and other conditions that reduce consciousness.
The plan recommends:
- Classifying and understanding different types of coma and their causes
- The development of better indicators of patient prognosis
- Clinical trials for new therapies to promote recovery of consciousness for intensive-care patients who are in comas or suffering from other forms of reduced consciousness.
“Coma is the most severe manifestation of brain injury,” Provencio said. “With this initiative, we hope to be able to treat patients in a coma the way we treat patients with strokes and heart attacks. In the future, having impaired consciousness from brain injury won’t be the lifelong medical condition it is now.”