Introduction: New guidelines regarding the diagnosis of disorders of consciousness (DOC) (such as vegetative state and minimally conscious state) have recently been published by the American Academy of Neurology and the European Academy of Neurology. This follows an impressive number of prospective studies performed on DOC and recent multi-centric studies with larger sample size, which have gathered precious information on the recovery of cohort of patients through years and which now call for a better management of patients with DOC.
Areas covered: This review will discuss recent updates on the clinical entities of DOC, the challenges for an accurate diagnosis and the last developments in diagnostic tools.
Expert opinion: The authors will also discuss the impact of the new guidelines on their way of diagnosing patients and how diagnosis will most likely change in a near future.
Keywords: Brain injury; behavioral assessment; coma; consciousness; minimally conscious state; unresponsive wakefulness syndrome; vegetative state.