title: Recovery and rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury.
abstract: Although most patients are discharged following traumatic brain injury (TBI) with "good recovery', recent reports indicate that many have persistent neuropsychological deficits. The purposes of this study were to: (1) determine if functional, neuropsychological and social outcome at 3 and 6 months in patients hospitalized following TBI could be ascertained via telephone follow-up, and (2) assess use of rehabilitation services in this population. Patients were identified through acute hospital admissions. A trained nurse practitioner abstracted data from acute charts. Using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Neurobehavioral Rating Scale (NRS), Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS), and a social questionnaire she obtained follow-up information at 3 and 6 months post-injury. Of 74 patients initially identified, 51 and 48 were available at 3 and 6 months, respectively. Most experienced mild to moderate TBI. Physical disability was minimal at follow-up as indicated by the FIM. Approximately half of the patients were rated cognitively impaired on the TICS at 3 months and over one-third remained impaired at 6 months. At 6 months 60.5% remained unemployed. Only eight of the 67 discharged survivors received any rehabilitation services. A brief telephone follow-up appears to be a cost-effective way to ascertain functional and neuropsychological outcome in TBI survivors. Since few of these patients received rehabilitation, a telephone follow-up may identify those who would potentially benefit from additional rehabilitation services.
authors.affiliation: St Mary's Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rochester, New York, USA.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Dombovy
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Olek
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000523:psychology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013689:Telephone; D016896:Treatment Outcome