SURVIVAL AFTER PROLONGED COMA: INFORMATION REQUESTED

Excerpt

To The Editor: The ability of physicians to maintain life for very long periods in the unconscious patient raises the question as to how long such skills should be deployed. As physicians we are eager to promote the recovery of everyone who can do so. In order to deprive no one of his chances on this score it is relevant to know the longest periods of coma that have been followed by useful survival.

A committee of the Massachusetts General Hospital is studying our own records and the world literature to determine pertinent features in all patients who, despite coma