The Use of EEG in the Prognosis of Coma

Prognosis in comatose patients is essential for medical, ethical, legal and financial reasons. Ambiguous definitions of clinical states and EEG terminology have hampered attempts to use EEG fruitfully for this purpose. Definitions of these terms are offered with a review of their utility in predicting outcome of unconscious patients. An effort is made to expand the scope of prognosis now available which is based mainly on clinical evaluation of brain stem reflexes and demonstration of an isoelectric EEG.