A Study of Outcome fron Severe Head Injuries

The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome in 100 patients operated on at the Ewha Womans University Hospital for severe head injuries as defined by the Glasgow Coma Scale. The diagnostic categories of all patients were epidural hematoma(30%), subdural hematoma(19%), intracerebral hematoma(4%), cerebral contusion(18%), subdural hygroma(7%), and epidural and subdural hematoma(22%). The overall outcome following severe head injuries was as follows: 68% made a good recovery or were moderately disabled, 10% were severely disabled or left vegetative, and 22% died. The outcome from severe head injuries seemed to become worse with advancing age or pupillary change. The value of the Coma Scale is evidenced from the fact that all of the patients who did poorly or died had 4 or less points and all of the patients who scored 5 points or better did well.