engleski

Logopedics evaluation of people in a persistent vegetative state and with minima

Background During speech therapy of patients in the state of persistent vegetative state and with minimal response reactions, it is hard to evaluate the state of hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, breathing, swallowing, chewing and orofacial functions. Methods An evaluating scale 'Speech and language assessment of people in persistent vegetative state and with minimal conscious reactions'(Kralj, G., Papes, M., Sumrak-Tusak, M., Habus, S., 2005) was created and used in this research in trying to get data about the condition of a person after traumatic brain injuries and data about their improvements in define time period. Seven people (6 men and 1 woman with specific disturbances of consciousness) were evaluated with this scale during three examinations in 30 days period between every examination. All examinees were in persistent vegetative state with minimal response reactions due to traumatic brain injury and cerebrovascular insult. They were aged between 18 to 65. Results Differences in examinees’ results between first, second and third examination were expected. However, results showed better condition in two patients, two examinees left the hospital before third examination, and the condition of all the other examinees was the same. Conclusion Rehabilitation of people with hard traumatic brain injuries is long process and it’ s outcome depends on a lot of different factors.

persistent vegetative state; minimal response reactions; speech and language assessment

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