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W Caton

Publications and source records attributed to W Caton.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Severe head injury. Clinical assessment and outcome.

A prospective study of 213 patients with severe head injury and Glasgow Coma Scores of 8 or less was conducted to identify, at 24 hours postinjury, the favorable and unfavorable clinical factors that relate to outcome one year later. According to the Glasgow Outcome Scale, 35 percent were classified Moderate Disability or Good Recovery, 13 percent were classified Severe Disability or Vegetative State, and 52 percent had died. The presence of intact brain-stem reflexes 24 hours postinjury in comatose patients with head injury is a prognostic sign for a good recovery. Favorable clinical signs include eye opening, pupillary reactivity, spontaneous eye movement, intact oculovestibular reflexes, and motor responses such as localizing. A prognosis of poor recovery is associated with nonreactive pupils, absent oculovestibular reflexes, and motor response of extension or no response at all. These negative signs, when present individually, were associated with only a 3 to 4 percent Moderate Disability or Good Recovery rate and an 85 to 91 percent mortality rate. The Glasgow Outcome Scale was also used to define recovery patterns at intervals during the first year after injury. Ninety percent of patients reached their highest outcome category by six months. The most frequent one-month outcome category for survivors was Severe Disability. By six months postinjury, 68 percent of these patients had made sufficient neurological progress to change their classification to Moderate Disability or Good Recovery. The 16 percent of patients classified at one month as in a persistently Vegetative State had a prognosis of poor outcome. Only 28 percent of these patients progressed in one year to the Severe Disability classification.

Adolescent↗

Severe head injuries in three countries.

Methods for assessing early characteristics and late outcome after severe head injury have been devised and applied to 700 cases in three countries (Scotland, Netherlands, and USA). There was a close similarity between the initial features of patients in the three series; in spite of differences on organisation of care and in details of management , the mortality was exactly the same in each country. This data bank of cases (which is still being enlarged) can be used for predicting outcome in new cases, and for setting up trials of management.

Adolescent↗

1H MRS in acute traumatic brain injury.

The objective of this study was to demonstrate 1H MR spectroscopy (MRS) changes in cerebral metabolites after acute head trauma. Twenty-five patients (12 children, 13 adults) were examined with quantitative 1H MRS after closed head injury. Clinical grade (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS]) and outcome (Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center Outcome Score [ROS]) were correlated with quantitative neurochemical findings. N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a neuronal and axonal marker, was reduced (P < .03-.001). In children, a reduced NAA/creatine plus phosphocreatine (Cr) level and the presence of detectable lipid/lactate predicted bad outcome (sensitivity, 89%; specificity, 89%). The first MRS examination of all patients correlated with ROS versus NAA (r = .65, P < .0001). Although most patients showed MRS abnormalities, striking heterogeneity of 1H MRS characterized the individual patients. 1H MRS identifies multiple patterns of diffuse brain injury after blunt head trauma. There was a strong correlation between MRS and outcome. Future prospective studies will be needed to determine the clinical usefulness of MRS in predicting outcome from closed head injury.

Adult↗