RT Book, Section A1 Haque, Ikram Ul A2 Carney, Paul R. A2 Geyer, James D. SR Print(0) ID 6655488 T1 Chapter 31. Coma T2 Pediatric Practice: Neurology YR 2010 FD 2010 PB The McGraw-Hill Companies PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-148925-6 LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=6655488 RD 2024/10/07 AB Coma is a common neurological emergency seen in critically ill children. Coma is not a disease per se but instead an acute state of disordered consciousness clinically manifested due to a wide variety of medical and surgical disease processes that affect the central nervous system (CNS). It is usually described as "a state of unarousable unresponsiveness in which the eyes remain continuously closed and there is no understandable response to environmental or intrinsic stimulation."1 In contrast to the sleep state, during coma a person cannot be aroused by appropriate intense stimuli, there is no evidence of sleep–wake cycles on the electroencephalogram (EEG), and the behavioral responses mostly consist of reflex activity.