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Physical examination in functional unresponsiveness
  1. Stephen Bacchi,
  2. Mark Slee
  1. College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Stephen Bacchi, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; stephen.bacchi{at}sa.gov.au

Abstract

Functional unresponsiveness can present a diagnostic challenge, but there are many positive physical examination findings that may help to confirm this diagnosis. Some of these are associated with pain or potential tissue damage for the patient, and potentially ethical and legal risk for the practitioner, but several lesser-known physical examination techniques do not carry these risks. Such examination techniques include non-damaging irritative stimuli, a modification to the conventional hand drop test and evaluation of eyelid opening.

  • coma
  • clinical neurology
  • pain
  • consciousness

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

https://doi.org/10.1136/pn-2022-003494

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    Data availability statement

    Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors SB and MS contributed to the conceptualisation, writing, reviewing and editing of the article.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned. Externally peer-reviewed by Jon Stone, Edinburgh, UK.

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