[Consciousness disorders from neurological view].

"Disturbances of consciousness of unknown origin" require an interdisciplinary approach due to the broad variety of possibly underlying causes. Primary neurological pathologies account for about half of the cases, which emphasizes the key role of the neurologist in the primary assessment and planning of the diagnostic and therapeutic strategy. The most important goal is to quickly identify patients with extremely time-critical conditions like ischemic stroke, bacterial meningitis or space occupying intracranial hemorrhage. The most important tool to generate a working hypothesis is the clinical neurological examination. However, even in apparently neurological presentations like e.g. first ever epileptic seizure, underlying even non-neurological pathologies have to be considered.