From Vegetative State to Participation: Amantadine As a Trigger of the Rehabilitation Program

• Autor(a) principal: Zão, Ana
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Almeida, Ana Filipe, Beça, Gustavo, Nunes, Renato
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/revista/index.php/amp/article/view/11257
• topic: Amantadine; Brain Injuries; Traumatic / drug therapy; Traumatic / rehabilitation; Persistent Vegetative State; Amantadina; Estado Vegetativo Persistente; Lesões Encefálicas Traumáticas/reabilitação; Lesões Encefálicas Traumáticas/tratamento farmacológico

The use of amantadine in clinical practice still seems limited, despite its increasing evidence in the emergence of vegetative state after traumatic brain injury. We describe the case of an adolescent with severe traumatic brain injury after being run over by a car. After four months of hospitalization in a Central Hospital where he remained in a vegetative state, he was transferred to a Rehabilitation Center. He underwent a comprehensive rehabilitation program with physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy, including multisensory stimulation and intervention in the surrounding environment. He started amantadine, 50 mg/day, titrated up to 200 mg/day, with significant clinical and functional improvements, and emerged from vegetative state to minimally conscious state at week three and recovered consciousness at the sixth week of amantadine, maintaining progressive improvement, even after drug suspension. The case described underlines the importance of a holistic intervention and corroborates the literature in demonstrating the efficacy and safety of amantadine in the emergence from vegetative state.