•  
  •  
 

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Translated Title

創傷性腦傷患者亞急性期復健療效之分析

Abstract

Objective: Traumatic brain injury generally occurs when external force brings about damage to the tissues of the brain and is commonly accompanied by changes in the physical, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional domains of the affected person; such changes can result in social adaptation problems. Issues involving finance and/or family caregiver human resources also occur due to the fact that the survivor's disabilities linger. The primary goals of the present study are (1) to obtain an initial understanding of the rehabilitation services available to traumatic brain injury patients and (2) to analyze the effects of such rehabilitation on traumatic brain injury patients. Methods: This study is a retrospective cohort study. The patients chosen for this study were patients who were injured during the period from January 2009 to April 2014 and were found to have at least two rehabilitation progress reports. These reports needed to include scores for the Functional Independent Measure (FIM), for the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke patients (PASS), and for a measure that tests the five areas of cognitive functioning. In total there were 81 patients who qualified; these individuals were identified as having been injured in a motor vehicle accident or due to a fall from a high place. Within 24 hours of being admitted to hospital, 47% of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores of the patients were within the range 3 to 8, while 25% of the patients had GCS score between 9 to 12, 28% of the patients had GCS score between 13 to 15. Overall, 89% of the patients also had suffered from intracranial hemorrhaging. Results: In terms of the patients recovering brain functions, the progress with respect to performing daily activities independently, maintaining a posture, cognitive functions and perceptive functions showed 30% progress by the third month after injury and 42% to 51% progress by the sixth month after injury. Performing daily activities independently and maintaining a posture had stabilized and did not show further improvement by the ninth month. By way of contrast, cognitive and perceptive functions such as the ability to memorizing items, the ability to make safety judgments, having a sense of direction, and the ability to pay attention stabilized earlier and did not show further improvement after the third month. Conclusions: Performing activities of daily living independently, maintaining a posture, cognitive functions and perceptive functions make continuous progress when there is intervention involving rehabilitation therapy. However, this study only followed most of the identified cases for six months, it is impossible to judge whether the cases with lingering disabilities needed further intervention and longer term care. This study suggests that future research should include other medical centers and carry out longitudinal follow-up surveys. This should be combined with the Ministry of Health and Welfare's evaluation results of this type of patient in order to identify the benefits to disabled individuals of intervention. Such findings would provide a reference when assessing social welfare expenditure needs in the future.

Language

Traditional Chinese

First Page

171

Last Page

179

Download

Share

COinS