RECENT ADVANCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE PARAMETERS - THE VEGETATIVE STATE

Practice parameters including the development of standards, guidelines and options are becoming an increasingly important aspect of contempo rary medicine. It is important that such parameters are based on evide ntiary data and that consensus be reached by the various professional specialty groups involved in the multidisciplinary care of patients. I n this paper, we review how these concepts have recently been applied to issues related to patients in the vegetative state.