Neurocritical Care Research: Collaborations for Curing Coma

Abstract

One of the most common questions asked by family members of patients with brain injuries who are in a coma is "will my loved one wake up?". Despite substantial improvements in the care of patients with neurological diseases, the medical and scientific community struggles to answer this simple question. More importantly, the technology and treatment strategies to improve the trajectory of patients with impaired consciousness in the acute setting are limited. The Curing Coma Campaign was developed by the Neurocritical Care Society as a multispecialty, multi-interest community of researchers and caretakers who are focused on patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) in the acute phase of care. Over the first few years of the group, several publications have focused on identifying the gaps in our knowledge to encourage research in the area. In this review, the current understanding of DoC is reviewed. The work of the Curing Coma Campaign to identify gaps in our knowledge is highlighted.

Keywords: Collaborations; Curing coma; Disorders of consciousness; Research gaps.