“What is a coma?”
I've always wondered what exactly is a coma?
6 Answers
Coma is a state of complete unresponsiveness to any stimuli. It can be caused by medical or traumatic conditions.
"Coma" refers to someone who is unconscious. There are different levels of coming out, and many reasons for it.
It is a failure of the reticular activating system to activate the thalamus or cortex. Hence, the brainstem reflexes can be present, but not cortical function.
It’s a state of unconsciousness that may be temporary or prolonged usually caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke or tumor or septic meningitis or certain metabolic condions like hepatic encephalopathy or uremic enchalopathy, or severe brain hypoxemia in association with severe lung disorders, there could be other causes, but those are the most common, so the patient unable to respond to any external stimuli and not aware of their surroundings, but will have a functioning heart maintaining the circulation, but will need ventilatory support to maintain life.
Loss of consciousness.
A coma is a prolonged state of unconsciousness. There are a number of causes of coma: head injury, drug or alcohol intoxications, stroke, tumors, infections and others. A patient in a coma does not respond to painful stimuli or light or sound and lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle.
