What is the life expectancy of someone with locked-in syndrome?
The life expectancies of stable LIS patients may be very long; 83 % of patients live 10 years, and 40 % live 20 years [4, 5].
Can you fully recover from locked-in syndrome?
Locked-in syndrome affects around 1% of people who have as stroke. It is a condition for which there is no treatment or cure, and it is extremely rare for patients to recover any significant motor functions. About 90% die within four months of its onset.
How do you care for someone with locked-in syndrome?
Although there is no specific treatment for locked-in syndrome, supportive care and communication by eye movements can help the patient survive and improve their quality of life.
What is it like to live with locked-in syndrome?
In acute locked-in syndrome (LIS), eye-coded communication and evaluation of cognitive and emotional functioning is very limited because vigilance is fluctuating and eye movements may be inconsistent, very small, and easily exhausted.
What happens to patients with locked-in syndrome?
Individuals with locked-in syndrome are conscious and awake, but have no ability to produce movements (outside of eye movement) or to speak (aphonia). Cognitive function is usually unaffected. Communication is possible through eye movements or blinking.
What functions can a patient with locked-in syndrome still do?
Symptoms and Signs of Locked-In Syndrome Patients with locked-in syndrome have intact cognitive function and are awake, with eye opening and normal sleep-wake cycles. They can hear and see. However, they cannot move their lower face, chew, swallow, speak, breathe, move their limbs, or move their eyes laterally.
How do people with locked-in syndrome communicate?
Individuals with locked-in syndrome are fully alert and aware of their environment. They can hear, see and have preserved sleep-wake cycles. Affected individuals can communicate through purposeful movements of their eyes or blinking or both. They can comprehend people talking or reading to them.
Can people with locked-in syndrome feel pain?
Some people diagnosed with locked-in syndrome continue to feel pain and retain sensation throughout their body or in limited areas of their body. Every case of locked-in syndrome is different, especially when it comes to those with an incomplete injury.
How do people get locked-in syndrome?
Locked-in syndrome may be caused by brain stem stroke, traumatic brain injury, tumors , diseases of the circulatory system (bleeding), diseases that destroy the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells (like multiple sclerosis), infection, or medication overdose.
