Care protocol for persistent vegetative states (PVS) and minimally conscious state (MSC) in Lorraine: retrospective study over an 18-year period.

Objectives: Retrospective analysis of the efficiency of a protocol for care of chronic vegetative states (CVS) and minimally conscious state (MCS) in Lorraine.

Material And Method: Two indicators are used: protocol activity (number of patients hospitalized between 1988 and 2006, number of admissions per year, of requests per year, origin of requests, waiting time) and the epidemiological data (age, sex ratio, etiology, length of stay, geographic origin, number of deaths, number of hospital discharges). The number of CVS and MCS and patients having progressed towards arousal is specified as well as the technical procedures (orthopedic surgery, number of tracheotomies).

Eye movements and verbal reports in neglect patients during a letter reading task.

Objectives: To study different typolologies from visuo-verbal behavior concerning the arrest and the treatment of visual information in patients with spatial hemineglect.

Methods: Ocular movements were monitored by photo-oculography in thirty controls and twenty-three patients with neglect. During a letter reading task, the movements, number of entries into predetermined zones of the visual field, time spent in each zone, and the verbal responses were recorded.

Latex hypersensitivity in spinal cord injured adult patients.

Latex hypersensitivity is a major cause of anaphylaxis during anaesthesia. Patients with spina bifida, health care or rubber industry workers have been considered at risk for latex sensitization. By analogy, the existence of other at-risk subsets of patients with latex exposure due to frequent surgical procedures has been suggested.

[Technical aids to patients with spinal cord injuries].

The purpose of technical aids is to compensate temporary and especially definitive functional disabilities in handicapped people. In medullary injured patients, technical aids are essential to preserve as much as possible the independence of paraplegics and particularly tetraplegic patients--activities of daily life such as eating, toileting, dressing, ambulation, car-driving, writing and environment control become hence forward possible. Technical aids prescription and adaptations depend for a large part not only on the localization of the lesion of the trauma but also of the goals, motivations and the environment of the disabled person.