Impact of rehabilitation on functional outcome during the first year of moderate and severe traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the functional level after 1 year in moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Study design: Prospective, cross-sectional study.

Setting and participants: Seventy individuals with TBI were admitted directly from acute care hospitals to a rehabilitation facility in Sawai Mansingh Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur (SMS). A follow-up of 58 patients was done up to 1 year later in the period from July 2011 to July 2012.

Results: Mean change in FIM scores from admission to discharge was 51.26 and from admission to 12 months it was 85.3 in the moderate injury group. Mean change in DRS from admission to discharge was −8.19 and from admission to 12 months it was −17.76 in the moderate injury group and −8.55 and −19 in the severe injury group, respectively. The correlation coefficient (r) between FIM and GOSE was 0.570 and between FIM and DRS was −0.8190, both of which were significant.

Conclusions: All individuals improved significantly in the inpatient rehabilitation facility in the acute phase, with maximum gain in function seen from admission to discharge as assessed on FIM and DRS. The majority of the individuals continued to improve up to 6 months post-injury.

• Disability rating scale (DRS)
• functional independence measure (FIM)
• Glasgow outcome scale extended (GOSE)
• rehabilitation
• traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Dr S. K. Jain and Professor Dr Devendra Purohit at the Department of Neurosurgery, SMS hospital Jaipur and their residents for their support with patient referral and statistician Dr Rajeev Yadav for his supervision in statistics.