The treatment of PVS is a major confusion in clinical neuroscience, and there is no absolute certainty of effective measures. A combination of treatments including nursing care, nutritional security, pharmacotherapy, ancestral medicine, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, neuroelectric stimulation, neural stem cell transplantation, rehabilitation measures, and family care are generally used. Neural stem cell transplantation and neuroelectric stimulation techniques are the current research hotspots. Neural stem cell transplantation is to induce and differentiate embryonic stem cells or bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells into the neural stem cells we need, and then transplant them into brain tissue to play certain functions, which has a broad application prospect, but its practicality and reliability need to be further confirmed according to the current research progress. Xie Qiuyou, Department of Neurorehabilitation, Guangzhou General Hospital, Guangzhou Military Region More attention has been paid to the neuroelectric stimulation technique, which was first applied to the treatment of multiple sclerosis in 1973 by Cook et al. Since then, the technique has been widely used for chronic pain, spasticity, tremor, lateralized chorea, spastic slant neck, etc. In the past 20 years, it has been used by foreign scholars to promote wakefulness in coma and PVS patients. Neuroelectrical stimulation for wakefulness technology is to improve the PVS state by releasing pulses to the brain through peripheral or implanted artificial electrical stimulators to increase the excitability of the cortex. After years of basic and clinical research, it has shown reliable efficacy and brought hope to the treatment of PVS. Neuroelectrical stimulation techniques include cervical spinal cord stimulation (cSCS), deep brain electrical stimulation (DBS, also known as “brain pacemaker”), and peripheral nerve stimulation (including median nerve stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation). For spinal cord electrical stimulation, the more widely used is the high cervical posterior cord electrical stimulation therapy, which is a disc or needle electrode placed in the middle of the epidural at the C2 to C4 level under general anesthesia, and the stimulation device is implanted under the skin of the anterior chest or back. This technique was first reported by Komai in 1982 for the treatment of PVS. In 1988, Kanno et al [12] reported clinical and electroencephalographic (EEG) and local cerebral blood flow (CBF) improvements after cervical medullary electrical stimulation. In 1989, Momose et al [13] used SPECT and PET to evaluate cerebral glucose metabolism and cerebral blood flow in patients after cSCS for the first time, and confirmed that the local glucose metabolism rate and cerebral blood flow increased significantly before and after stimulation. 1993, Kuwata et al [14] performed EEG and cortical acetylcholine, 5hydroxyindoleacetic acid, aspartate, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid after cSCS. In 1998, Fuji et al [15] showed that 58% of patients who were given cSCS in the early stage of hypoxic encephalopathy, i.e., within 1 month, showed significant improvement and could communicate with the outside world verbally and express emotions 2 weeks after the start of stimulation, which was significantly better than those who were given cSCS in the chronic stage. In 1998, Kanno et al. summarized that of 130 cases of PVS treated, 56 (43%) had recovered consciousness and another 23 had improved GCS scores by 5. In 2007, Morita, together with Kanno, again analyzed the operation, mechanism and clinical results of cSCS performed on 32 patients (21 with traumatic brain injury, 8 with hypoxic encephalopathy and 3 with cerebrovascular disease), noting an efficiency of 80% [16]. The efficacy of SCS is now considered to be definitive, with an overall effective rate of 20%-40%, while the rate and effectiveness of PVS to promote awakening after traumatic brain injury is higher. Deep brain electrical stimulation is used to awaken cortical functions by exciting the reticular superior activating system, including thalamic electrical stimulation, brainstem midbrain electrical stimulation, and cerebellar electrical stimulation. Specifically, deep brain stimulation electrodes are implanted through stereotactic surgery in sites such as the cuneate nucleus of the midbrain reticular formation or nonspecific nuclei of the thalamus and stimulated according to certain stimulation parameters, usually placed for 3 to 24 months.In 1990, Tsubokawa et al [17] reported significant results in 4 of 8 patients treated with DBS, 3 of which were removed from a vegetative state, noting that if patients were given DBS within 2 months after brain injury and continued for 6-8 months with better results. 1993 Cohadon et al [18] reported 25 patients with PVS after traumatic brain injury were given DBS at 3 months and found no significant changes in 12 cases and definite improvement in 13 cases after 1-12 years of follow-up, but the long-term results were less satisfactory and the exact DBS efficacy was difficult to be sure due to the lack of ideal control. Yamamoto et al [19] in 2005 found through 21 patients more than 10 years after DBS that 8 patients were out of PVS, but most still needed to be bedridden, pointing out that DBS is an effective wake-promoting method with better results for MCS if selected appropriately, but also emphasizing the need to be accompanied by complete neurorehabilitation. In 2007, Schiff et al [20] reported that a patient who had been in MCS for 6 years after traumatic brain injury still achieved significant improvements in cognition, limb movement, and feeding after administration of DBS, and concluded that DBS could significantly promote functional recovery after severe brain injury. It is believed that DBS can significantly promote the functional recovery in the later stage of severe brain injury. Statistics showed that the total effective rate of deep electrical stimulation therapy was 44.3%, and the effective rates for head trauma, hypoxic encephalopathy and cerebrovascular disease were 57.1%, 31.2% and 29.4%, respectively. The therapeutic effect is closely related to the etiology, as well as the age and duration of the disease. 80.6% of those under 30 years of age were effective, and 67.7% of those with a disease duration of less than 12 months were effective. Most scholars believe that the efficacy is better in patients who meet the following conditions: (1) young patients, (2) traumatic brain injury, (3) no extensive hypodense foci in the brain, (4) no obvious brain atrophy, (5) no damage to the thalamus, and (6) CBF >25-30 m1/100g/min. In comatose patients, as soon as the condition permits, neurostimulation should be performed as early as possible. Neuroelectrical stimulation should be performed as early as possible for comatose patients as long as their condition permits. Thus, at this stage, neuroelectric stimulation is the best choice for PVS and has a wide application prospect. At present, there are a few examples in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Nanjing, and further clinical use and efficacy are expected to be reported. Peripheral nerve electrical stimulation is the use of low frequency electrical stimulation to continuously stimulate the peroneal nerve or median nerve bilaterally, which has the effect of activating EEG in normal people and increasing the wave amplitude in the alpha frequency domain, suggesting that it may have the potential to induce widespread cortical arousal. This technique is more commonly used in the U.S. In 2005 Cooper et al [21] stated that the application of right median nerve electrical stimulation (MNS) can increase cortical excitability in patients with subacute and chronic coma, and also improve cognition in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and should be used as a routine treatment for those with reduced levels of consciousness. Although theoretically sound, the efficacy of treating the vegetative state requires further observation. mNS has the advantages of being non-invasive, free of complications, easy to perform, and inexpensive compared to cSCS and DBS. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) requires surgical isolation of the vagus nerve from the neck and external electrical stimulation after ring electrode wrapping, and this technique is still in the research stage.