https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.2002.697
Lo stato vegetativo "permanente": oggettività clinica, problemi etici e risposte di cura
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Autori
L'autore, alla luce della più aggiornata letteratura specialistica, illustra le due condizioni cliniche definite come stato vegetativo (SV) persistente rispettivamente SV permanente, condizioni a loro volta distinte da altre situazioni cliniche quali il coma e la morte cerebraele.
Infatti, con SV persistente si intende uno SV - cioè la perdita completa di coscienza pur in presenza di cicli sonno-veglia e di attività ipotalamica e troncoencefalica autonomica - presente a distanza di un mese da un insulto cerebrale oppure per almeno un mese in disturbi metabolici o degenerativi o in sindromi malformative.
Con SV permanente, invece, si definisce uno SV irreversibile, anche se l'organismo che ne da la definizione più aggiornata, la Multi-Society Task Force on PVS, ne precisa la connotazione probabilistica e non di certezza. Dunque mentre per lo SV persistente si pone una diagnosi, per lo SV permanente solo un giudizio prognostico.
Nel prosieguo dell'articolo, l'autore illustra inoltre il dibattito di bioetica clinica attivatosi sull'argomento, mettendo in guardia da inaccettabili tentativi di introduzione surrettizia di pratiche eutanasiche per questi pazienti.
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