Analysis of Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) scores in consecutive vegetative and minimally conscious state patients

Abstract

Consensus guidelines defining minimally conscious state (MCS) have been available for some years. However, to date, few measures have been developed that are particularly suited to monitoring MCS patients and there are limited clinical outcome data. The objective of the study was to determine the value of serial repeated assessments using the Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) to identify changes in vegetative state (VS) and MCS patients. Twenty consecutive VS/MCS patients admitted to a post-acute regional neurorehabilitation unit were assessed using WHIM. Significant differences in both total number of behaviours observed (p < .001) and highest rank behaviour were observed (p = .001) between initial and final WHIM assessments. Preliminary findings suggest that the WHIM is a sensitive measure of subtle changes in VS and MCS patients.