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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neuroepidemiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1465564

Mortality of Chronic Disorders of Consciousness in Adults and Adolescentsa Retrospective Community Based Study from Salzburg, Austria

Provisionally accepted
Laura Schnetzer Laura Schnetzer 1,2,3,4*Tanja Prüwasser Tanja Prüwasser 5Jürgen Bergmann Jürgen Bergmann 1,2Georg Zimmermann Georg Zimmermann 6,7,8Martin Kronbichler Martin Kronbichler 2,9Stefan Leis Stefan Leis 1Eugen Trinka Eugen Trinka 1,2,3,4
  • 1 Department of Neurology, Neurological Intensive Care and Neurorehabilitation, Christian Doppler Medical Centre, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
  • 2 Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler Medical Centre, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
  • 3 Karl Landsteiner Institute of Neurorehabilitation and Space Neurology, Salzburg, Austria
  • 4 Spinal Cord Injury and Tissue Regeneration Center Salzburg, Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
  • 5 Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
  • 6 IDA Lab Team Biostatistics and Big Medical Data, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
  • 7 Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces, Faculty of Digital and Analytical Sciences, Paris Lodron University, Salzburg, Austria
  • 8 Research Programme Biomedical Data Science, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
  • 9 Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Epidemiological data on disorders of consciousness (DoC) is rare and very heterogeneous due to difficulties in case ascertainment and differences in health care pathways between countries. This study reports data on mortality and survival time for DoC patients in Salzburg, Austria.Methods: All patients with DoC were registered in the health care region of Salzburg North, Austria between 2007 and 2022 and their death data retrieved from the Statistik Austria. The 1-and 5-year mortality was calculated, also in relation to several explanatory variables (age, sex, etiology, diagnosis, CRS-R score, improvement). Furthermore, the incidence, survival functions using the Kaplan Meier estimator and a Cox-Regression were calculated.The mean annual incidence is 2.2 DoC/100.000 inhabitants in the Salzburg North region. The crude 1-and 5-year mortality rates were 25.9% and 55.1%, respectively, and the median survival of DoC patients based on the Kaplan Meier estimator was 6.3 years. Moreover, the mortality was lower in women and in younger patients, those of traumatic etiology, and those with higher CRS-R scores, better diagnosis or an improvement of diagnosis until discharge from hospital.This article gives a rare insight into epidemiological data on DoC and shows which factors influence the mortality of these patients. Moreover, it is the first community based study on mortality of DoC in Salzburg, Austria.

    Keywords: Minimally Conscious State, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, Incidence, Survival, Epidemiology, Kaplan Meier Curve, etiology, death

    Received: 16 Jul 2024; Accepted: 20 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Schnetzer, Prüwasser, Bergmann, Zimmermann, Kronbichler, Leis and Trinka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Laura Schnetzer, Department of Neurology, Neurological Intensive Care and Neurorehabilitation, Christian Doppler Medical Centre, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria

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