Clinical course of post-traumatic coma.

The Authors describe the clinical course of 331 cases of post-traumatic coma, studied during the two-year period 1970-1971 at the 2nd Division of Neurosurgery (Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna). Among them, 42% died from trauma-related causes; 40% survived and had a complete reintegration into society; 18% survived at a lower social level or remained totally excluded from society. The quality of survival does not depend on the presence and degree of organic sequelae only, but also on psycho-social factors.