Long-term neuropsychological outcome of closed head injury

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Abstract
Long-term recovery from severe closed head injury was investigated in predominantly young adults whose Glasgow Coma score was 8 or less at the time of admission. Of the 27 patients studied (median follow-up interval of 1 yr), 10 attained a good recovery, 12 were moderately disabled and 5 were severely disabled. In contrast to previous studies suggesting that intellectual ability after severe closed head injury eventually turns to normal levels, the present findings showed that residual intellectual level, memory storage and retrieval, linguistic deficit and personal social adjustment corresponded to overal outcome. All severely disabled patients and severely moderately disabled patients exhibited unequivocal cognitive and emotional sequelae after long follow-up intervals. Analysis of persistent neurophsychological deficit in relation to neurological indices of acute injury severity demonstrated the prognostic significance of oculovestibular deficit.