ABSTRACT
The description of coma and coma arousal therapy in Caraka Samhita is described in smtra 24, verses 42-53. It describes the definition of coma, differential diagnosis of coma from other disorders of consciousness, signs of coma, etiology of coma, coma arousal therapy, and emergence from coma. The similarities and differences of these aspects of coma from the perspective of its interpretation in modern medicine are discussed in this article.
Subject(s)
Coma/physiopathology , Coma/therapy , Medicine, Ayurvedic/methods , Coma/etiology , Coma/history , History, 17th Century , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , HumansABSTRACT
The appropriate starting point for a history of neurocritical care is a matter of debate, and the organization of facts and conjectures about it must be somewhat arbitrary. Intensive care for neurosurgical patients dates back to the work of Walter Dandy at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1930s; many consider his creation of a special unit for their postoperative care to be the first real ICU. The genesis of neurocritical care begins in prehistory, however. This article gives a predominantly North American history, with some brief forays into the rest of the world community of neurointensivists.