About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffComa is a medical emergency, and attention first is given to maintaining respiration and circulation. Assistance with breathing, administration of fluids and blood, and other supportive care may be necessary.
Emergency personnel may administer glucose or antibiotics intravenously, even before blood test results return, on the chance that the person is in diabetic shock or has an infection affecting the brain.
Treatment varies, depending on what's causing the coma. Sometimes surgery is needed to relieve the pressure due to brain swelling. Other treatments may focus on addressing an underlying disease, such as diabetes, kidney failure or liver disease.
Sometimes the cause of coma can be completely reversed and the person will regain normal function. But if the brain damage is severe, the person may sustain permanent disabilities or may never regain consciousness.
- Berger JR. Stupor and coma. In: Bradley. Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Burlington, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-7506-7525-3..50007-8--cesec4&uniq=189705338&isbn=978-0-7506-7525-3&sid=969544059. Accessed March 18, 2010.
- Simon RP. Coma and disorders of arousal. In: Goldman L, et al., eds. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/189705338-11/969548074/1492/1435.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50433-X--cesec2_18138. Accessed March 18, 2010.
- Young BG. Stupor and coma in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 18, 2010.
- Cooke JL. Depressed consciousness and coma. In: Marx JA, et al., eds. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 6th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05472-0..00014-1&uniq=189705338&isbn=978-0-323-05472-0&sid=969548074#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05472-0..00014-1%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-0-323-05472-0. Accessed March 18, 2010.
- Wijdicks EF (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 23, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on