Proving cortical death after vascular coma: Evoked potentials, EEG and neuroimaging.

•In vascular coma, a bilateral and multimodal abolition of cortical evoked potentials (EPs) does not exclude awakening.•EEG reactivity may complete EPs in demonstrating cortical viability after sub-cortical lesions.•The initial vascular lesion can induce a pseudo-anoxic coma with the same pattern and evolution.