What Is A Coma And What Are Its Different Causes?

by Rahul Singh Content Writer

Introduction

A ‘coma’ is a medical term for a prolonged state of unconsciousness where a person is unresponsive to his or her environment. A person with a coma is called comatose. The comatose person is alive and looks like he/she is sleeping. However, they cannot be awakened by any external stimuli, like pain, unlike a sleeping person.

Different Causes of Coma

Comas are usually a result of brain injury. This brain injury can be due to increased pressure, bleeding, loss of oxygen, or build-up of toxins. The injury can be temporary and reversible or permanent, and so can be the coma. Causes that can lead to a coma include:

Trauma: Head injuries cause the brain to swell and/or bleed. This fluid pushes up against the skull. If it pushes against the brain stem, it can damage the RAS (Reticular Activating System), which is the part of brain that’s responsible for arousal or awareness.
Swelling: Swelling can sometimes occur even without trauma, due to lack of oxygen, electrolyte imbalance or hormones.
Bleeding: Bleeding in the layers of the brain can cause coma due to compression and damage to the RAS, as mentioned above. High blood pressure, cerebral aneurysms, and tumours can cause bleeding in the brain.
Stroke: Coma can occur when there is no blood flow to a major part of the brain, as happens in a stroke.
Blood Sugar: Coma can occur in people with diabetes, when the blood sugar levels are really high in a condition known as hyperglycaemia. The opposite, hypoglycaemia, where blood sugar is too low, can also lead to a coma.
Oxygen deprivation: Oxygen deprivation can be caused when a person is drowning or choking, or can also occur during cardiac arrest, where blood flow and thus oxygen to the brain are cut-off.
Infection: Certain infections of the central nervous system like meningitis or encephalitis can cause a coma.
Toxins: Toxin accumulation can occur when the body fails to get rid of them correctly. Ammonia due to liver disease, carbon dioxide from a severe asthma attack, or urea from kidney failure can accumulate to toxic levels in the body, which can cause a coma.
Seizures: Multiple seizures can also cause a coma.

Coma is a neurological condition that is treated and managed by a neurologist or a neurosurgeon. There are hospitals in Gurgaon which have the best neurologists in Gurgaon and Delhi NCR. These neuro physicians in Gurgaon and Delhi NCR have decades of experience in neurology and neurosurgery.