Impact of Sensory Stimulation on Perception and Performance among the Comatose: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Adult brains in good health are capable of processing a variety of intricate sensory data. The faces of the object and the people are recognised, and the location, depth, and distance of the object and the people are identified. These basic and complex perceptual abilities may be impacted by a stroke or other acquired brain injury, such as a head injury. Being unaware of one's surroundings, as when sleeping, or being unresponsive to stimulation are both symptoms of being unconscious. In the area of neurorehabilitation, sensory stimulation programmes (SSP) have received the most research. A healthcare provider or a family member systematically stimulates the patient's five sensory modalities as part of sensory stimulation, a form of therapy that may improve the patient's responsiveness. In order to analyse the impact of sensory stimulation on perception and performance among comatose, double- blinded randomized clinical trial was conducted on 12 comatose patients with Glasgow Coma Scale score 3-8 and diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and cerebrovascular accidents. The patients were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. The comatose patients were recruited via random sampling from various Intensive Care Units of AJ Institute of Medical Sciences, Mangalore. The experimental group was given sensory stimulation twice daily for seven consecutive days, with each session lasting 25 minutes. By contrast, the control group only received routine care from the hospital. Data was collected via demographic and clinical proforma and level of conscious was measured by Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). For statistical analysis, independent t test and ANOVA were computed. There was a significant increase in the post-test scores of CRS-R for experimental group which revealed that multimodal sensory stimulation effectively increased the CRS-R scores among unconscious patients in the experimental group.  Nurses can use this intervention to improve sensory scores among unconscious patients in the Intensive Care Unit.