Clinical Rehabilitation 2008; 22: 653–662 Global outcome, productivity and epilepsy 3–8 years

Objective: To assess long-term outcome in survivors after severe head injury and relate outcome to injury severity. Design: Follow-up 3–8 years post injury in a retrospectively collected sample. Setting: A neurosurgical department in a regional trauma centre. Subjects: Of 146 individuals admitted, 135 were actively treated. Twenty-four per cent of these died within six months. Ninety-three of the 94 (aged 1–88 years) who survived more than three years were included in the follow-up. They were separated into groups based on their level of consciousness at four weeks post injury: oriented (n 39), confused (n 22) or in a minimally conscious/vegetative state (MCS/VS) (n 26) and not possible to assess (n 6). Outcome measures: Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), participation in work/education (productivity) and posttraumatic epilepsy