Pisa Federica Edith, Biasutti Emanuele, Drigo Daniela, Barbone Fabio
Institute of Hygiene and Clinical Epidemiology, University Hospital of Udine (Drs Pisa, Drigo, and Barbone), Unit for the Rehabilitation of Acquired Neuropsychological Disturbances, Institute of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine Gervasutta Hospital (Dr Biasutti), and Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, University of Udine (Dr Barbone), Udine, Italy.
J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2014 Jul-Aug;29(4):E23-30. doi: 10.1097/HTR.0b013e3182a4469f.
To systematically review prevalence studies of vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS) in geographically defined populations, to appraise study methods and assess sources of heterogeneity.
MEDLINE, EBM Reviews, and EMBASE databases were searched using key terms. Two reviewers independently identified pertinent articles and screened the references for additional studies. Studies measuring the prevalence of VS and/or MCS in a defined population were included, and information on characteristics, methods, and results was extracted. Heterogeneity was quantified through the statistic I.
We identified 5 cross-sectional prevalence surveys of VS and 1 of MCS. Prevalence ranged from 0.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 3.4 for VS and was 1.5 per 100,000 for MCS. Relevant heterogeneity (I = 99.0%) prevented us from calculating a summary estimate. The prevalence of trauma cases varied from 21.9% to 53.8%. Variability pertaining to diagnostic criteria, definition of case, and methods of ascertainment was found.
In the few prevalence studies of VS and MCS that were identified, the estimates showed high variability and could not be pooled. Future studies should consider using comparable methods for the definition, ascertainment, and confirmation of cases.
系统综述地理界定人群中植物状态（VS）和微意识状态（MCS）的患病率研究，评估研究方法并分析异质性来源。
使用关键词检索MEDLINE、循证医学综述和EMBASE数据库。两名评审员独立识别相关文章，并筛选参考文献以寻找其他研究。纳入测量特定人群中VS和/或MCS患病率的研究，并提取有关特征、方法和结果的信息。通过统计量I对异质性进行量化。
我们识别出5项VS的横断面患病率调查和1项MCS的横断面患病率调查。VS的患病率范围为每10万居民0.2例至3.4例，MCS为每10万居民1.5例。相关异质性（I = 99.0%）使我们无法计算汇总估计值。创伤病例的患病率从21.9%至53.8%不等。发现了诊断标准、病例定义和确定方法方面的变异性。
在已识别的少数VS和MCS患病率研究中，估计值显示出高度变异性，无法进行合并。未来研究应考虑使用可比方法来定义、确定和确认病例。
