<unk>  <unk>  is one of the most common and devastating types of brain<unk>  (Iwata et al., 2004), occurring in almost half of all cases of severe head trauma (Park and Hyun, 2004).  It is a type of<unk>  brain<unk> , meaning that damage occurs over a more widespread area than in focal brain<unk> . <unk> , which refers to extensive lesions in white matter tracts, is one of the major causes of unconsciousness and persistent vegetative state after head trauma (Wasserman, 2004).
Though<unk>  seldom leads to death, the outcome is frequently coma with over 90% of patients with severe<unk>  never regaining consciousness (Wasserman, 2004).  Those who do wake up often remain significantly impaired (Vinas and Pilistis, 2004).
Nowadays, other authors state that<unk>  can occur in every degree of severity from (very) mild or moderate to (very) severe (Vik, 2006, Smith, 2000).
Diffuse axonal injury
Acute motor axonal neuropathy
Brain stem death
Neurogenic inflammation
Central pontine myelinolysis
Acute flaccid myelitis
Anoxic brain injury
Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration