Mortality of chronic disorders of consciousness in adults and adolescents – a retrospective community based study from Salzburg, Austria

This study investigates the mortality rates and survival times of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) in Salzburg, Austria, between 2007 and 2022. DoC includes conditions like unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and minimally conscious state (MCS), which result from severe brain injuries. The researchers analyzed data from 164 patients, looking at factors like age, sex, cause of the injury, and diagnosis to see how they affect survival. They found that the average annual incidence of DoC in the Salzburg North region is 2.2 cases per 100,000 people. The study highlights that factors such as younger age, female sex, traumatic etiology, and higher scores on the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) are associated with better survival rates among DoC patients.

• 1
  The crude 1- and 5-year mortality rates for DoC patients in Salzburg North were 25.9% and 55.1%, respectively.
• 2
  The median survival time for DoC patients was 6.3 years based on the Kaplan-Meier estimator.
• 3
  Mortality was lower in women, younger patients, those with traumatic injuries, and those with higher CRS-R scores or improvements in diagnosis.