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Synonyms
Persistent vegetative state; Unresponsiveness wakefulness syndrome
Definition
Apallic syndrome is an older term that was first replaced by persistent vegetative state. More recently, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) is the proposed nomenclature. The syndrome is a clinical condition describing patients who fail to show voluntary motor responsiveness in the presence of eyes-open wakefulness. Patients show reflexive behavior such as spontaneous breathing, but no signs of awareness of the self or the environment. A thorough clinical evaluation may be required to distinguish between UWS and other conditions, including coma, brain death, and locked-in syndrome.
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References and Readings
(1994). Medical aspects of the persistent vegetative state-first of two parts. NEJM, 330, 1499–1508.
Multi-society task force on PVS (1994). Medical aspects of the persistent vegetative state-second of two parts. NEJM, 330, 1572–1579.
Laureys, S., Celesia, G. G., Cohadon, F., Lavrijsen, J., et al. (2010). Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: A new name for the vegetative state or apallic syndrome. BMC Medicine, 8, 68.
van Erp, W., Lavrijsen, J. C. M., van de Laar, F. A, Vos, P . E., Laureys S., Koopmans, R. T. C. M. (2014). The vegetative state/unresponsiveness wakefulness syndrome: A systematic review of prevalence studies. European Journal of Neurology, 21, 1361–1368.
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Locke, D. (2018). Appalic Syndrome. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_221
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_221
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
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