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Unconsciousness may occur as the result of traumatic brain injury, brain hypoxia (inadequate oxygen, possibly due to a brain infarction or cardiac arrest), severe intoxication with drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system (e.g., alcohol and other hypnotic or sedative drugs), severe fatigue, pain, anaesthesia, and other causes.
In medicine, a coma (from the Greek κῶμα koma, meaning deep sleep) is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than six hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions.
Stupor is characterized by impaired reaction to external stimuli. Those in a stuporous state are rigid, mute and only appear to be conscious, as the eyes are open and follow surrounding objects. If not stimulated externally, a patient with stupor will appear to be in a sleepy state most of the time.
Riaan Bolton [2] 1980 2003, July 3 years 2006 South African: Suffered severe brain trauma in a car crash. Emerged when his family learned about the effect of the drug Zolpidem on fellow coma victim Louis Viljoen (see below). Gary Dockery [citation needed] 1954–1997 1988 >7.5 years 1996 American
Prolonged unconsciousness is understood to be a sign of a medical emergency. [3] A deficit in the level of consciousness suggests that both of the cerebral hemispheres or the reticular activating system have been injured. [4] A decreased level of consciousness correlates to increased morbidity (sickness) and mortality (death). [5]
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake–sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. [1]
The purpose of anesthesia can be distilled down to three basic goals or endpoints: [2]: 236 hypnosis (a temporary loss of consciousness and with it a loss of memory.In a pharmacological context, the word hypnosis usually has this technical meaning, in contrast to its more familiar lay or psychological meaning of an altered state of consciousness not necessarily caused by drugs—see hypnosis).
An induced coma – also known as a medically induced coma (MIC), barbiturate-induced coma, or drug-induced coma – is a temporary coma (a deep state of unconsciousness) brought on by a controlled dose of an anesthetic drug, often a barbiturate such as pentobarbital or thiopental.