[Prognosis of severe head injury in childhood: from the viewpoint of brain plasticity].

We investigated prognosis of 12 children with severe head injury, whose Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was less than 8 during the acute period. We divided the cases into two groups according to the age of incidence: less than 4 years (6 cases) and more than 4 years (6 cases). We examined the acute conditions (cause, type of the lesion, GCS, period of consciousness loss) and the present status (disability, intelligence quotient: IQ, functional independence measure: FIM). We used IQ and FIM scores for the indices to assess prognosis, and compared those two groups. IQ and FIM scores were better in the group whose onset was under 4 years. This difference was thought to be related to the greater plasticity and to the rehabilitation effect in younger brain. Language: ja