ABSTRACT
Much more attention tends to be paid to describing and classifying the initial diagnosis and severity of injury than to defining the outcome after various types of trauma. Yet when it is the brain that is injured the need for accurate assessment of outcome is all the more pressing, because many survivors are left with a combination of mental and neurological deficits that markedly affect the quality of life. Judging the medical efficacy and the cost-effectiveness of interventions both in the acute and rehabilitation phases depend on measuring and valuing the ultimate outcome. Apart from this the patient and his family are clearly concerned to be kept informed about the prospects of recovery as time passes, and to be advised about how to plan for the likely, and then to deal with the actual, outcome.
