Novel aspects of the neuropathology of the vegetative state after blunt head injury

A detailed neuropathological study was undertaken of the brains of patients who had been assessed clinically as vegetative after blunt head injury. There were 35 cases, (33 male; median age 38 years) with a survival of 6.5-19 months (median 9): 17 were injured in a road traffic accident, 9 after assault and 6 after a fall; 3 were recorded as having had a lucid interval. There was an intracranial hematoma in 9 and the median contusion index was 4; raised intracranial pressure was identified in 25, grades 2 and 3 diffuse traumatic axonal injury was present in 25, ischemic damage in 15 and hydrocephalus in 27. Thalamic and hippocampal damage was present in 28 and stereological studies revealed a differential loss of neurons in three principal nuclei of the thalamus and in different sectors of the hippocampus. Inummohistochemistry provided evidence of an inflammatory reaction and in situ DNA fragmentation, features that are strongly indicative of a continuing neuronal loss in subcortical gray matter. These findings provide evidence for the importance of diffuse brain damage to white matter as the structural basis of the vegetative state after blunt head injury with contributions from neuronal loss in the thalami and the hippocampus. Although amyloid plaques and tau inclusions were identified in some, their contribution did not seem important in the ultimate clinical outcome.