Abstract

Two cases of alcoholic coma are presented where extensor responses to noxious stimuli are demonstrated. Decerebrate posturing normally indicates severe structural or functional depression of midbrain function but can be caused by depressant drugs. Blood alcohol measurements are a vital test in the comatose patient as the clinical picture may be caused, or temporarily significantly worsened, by severe alcohol intoxication. The preservation of pupillary light reflexes in the presence of deep coma with decerebrate posturing should alert the clinician to a possible metabolic cause for the coma, including alcohol. Nevertheless, a diagnosis of alcoholic coma should not be made unless the blood alcohol concentration is grossly elevated and other causes of coma have been excluded by careful physical examination, blood glucose and electrolyte measurement, skull radiography and, in the absence of a rapid improvement, computerized tomography.