Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2020; 8(12): 2520-2529
Published online Jun 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i12.2520
Recovery from prolonged disorders of consciousness: A dual-center prospective cohort study in China
Wei-Guan Chen, Ran Li, Ye Zhang, Jian-Hui Hao, Ju-Bao Du, Ai-Song Guo, Wei-Qun Song
Wei-Guan Chen, Ran Li, Ye Zhang, Jian-Hui Hao, Ju-Bao Du, Wei-Qun Song, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Xuan Wu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China
Wei-Guan Chen, Ai-Song Guo, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Chen WG participated in study design, drafted the manuscript, was involved in data collection, and assisted with data analysis; Li R, Zhang Y, and Hao JH were involved in data collection and assisted with data analysis; Du JB and Guo AS were involved with data collection; Song WQ participated in design and supervision of the study; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81371194 and No. 81873723.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the ethics committee of Xuan Wu hospital according to the guidelines of the Helsinki declaration (1964 and 2000).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There is no additional data available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei-Qun Song, MD, Doctor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Xuan Wu Hospital, Capital Medical University, No 45, Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China. songwq66@126.com
Received: December 30, 2019
Peer-review started: December 30, 2019
First decision: April 1, 2020
Revised: April 24, 2020
Accepted: May 20, 2020
Article in press: May 20, 2020
Published online: June 26, 2020
Processing time: 176 Days and 22.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Data are lacking regarding the long-term outcomes of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) in China. This was a two-center prospective cohort study of inpatients with prolonged DoC for up to 6 years, included 93 patients (62 vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and 31 minimally conscious state). The results showed that patients with severe DoC, despite having strong predictors of poor prognosis, might recover consciousness after a prolonged time of rehabilitation.