Persistent Vegetative State (PVS)

A persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative state (VS), the patient is classified as in a persistent vegetative state. This diagnosis is classified as a permanent vegetative state some months after a non-traumatic brain injury or one year after a traumatic injury. Nowadays, more doctors and neuroscientists prefer to call the state of consciousness an unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, primarily because of ethical questions about whether a patient can be called "vegetative" or not.