Evoked potentials and head injury. 2. Clinical applications.

The method of rating abnormality of evoked brain potential patterns and assessing the extent and severity of cortical and subcortical brain dysfunction in head injury patients described in Part I is applied in a clinical context. Evoked potential abnormality (EPA) scores are found to be significantly correlated both with admission and outcome disability approximately one year after head injury. Correlations increase with the increase in the number of sensory modalities tested. Correlations between EPA scores and clinical disability (measured by the Disability Rating Scale) decrease with time after injury. Significant correlations, however, persist for about 60 days after onset of injury. It was found that EP pattern abnormalities can reflect specific sensory (and at times motor) deficits in noncommunicative patients and thereby contribute significantly to early treatment and rehabilitation planning.