The use of amantadine in patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome after severe cerebral hemorrhage.

BACKGROUND

Amantadine is currently recommended for use in patients of post-traumatic brain injury with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS). However, the application of amantadine in UWS after cerebral hemorrhage has only been rarely reported. This allows for a further exploration of the role of amantadine in the treatment of UWS resulting from a severe cerebral hemorrhage.

METHODS

We observed the changes of seven patients with UWS of intracerebral hemorrhage after taking amantadine. We also carried out a detailed neurological examination of the patient with disorders of consciousness to include or exclude subjects for the study. CRS-R score was used to evaluate the neurological recovery.

RESULTS

An improvement in consciousness was observed within 3-6 days after the start of amantadine administration in all seven cases (n = 7/7; 100%). Five patients recovered conscious and left aphasia, hemiplegia and other sequelae, and two patients recovered from UWS to minimally conscious state (MCS).

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, amantadine administration showed substantial positive effects on recovery following severe cerebral hemorrhage. We recommend further randomized controlled studies to determine the efficacy of amantadine.