Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2001 , Vol 47 , Num 1

Travmatik Beyin Yaralanmasında Rehabilitasyon Sonuçları: Kognitif Fonksiyonların Rehabilitasyon Sonuçlarına Etkisi

Ayşe Kaya 1 ,Meltem Dalyan 1 ,Havva Ülker 1 ,Müfit Akyüz 2 ,Aytül Çakcı 3
1 Ankara Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon Merkezi, Ankara
2 Ankara Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Ankara, Türkiye
3 Sağlık Bakanlığı Ankara Dışkapı Yıldırım Beyazıt Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Kliniği, Ankara, Türkiye

Rehabilitation Outcome in Traumatic Brain Injury: Effects of Cognitive Functions Besides medical problems, traumatic brain injured (TBI) patients present with motor,  sensorial, functional and behavioral impairments. Additionally, these patients usually face impairments in cognitive functioning. In this study; physical, functional and cognitive status of the patients admitted to our center with the diagnosis of TBI were assessed. The impact of cognitive impairment on nerorehabilitation outcome was also evaluated. The mean age was 27.7±9.8 and the motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause (58%). At discharge, our patients were found to achieve statistically significant improvements in physical, functional, disability and cognitive status (p<0.01). Different spesific cognitive domains such as orientation, attention, memory, speech, construction, visual-spatial functioning and emotional-affective functions were significantly related to functional and disability measures (p<0.01). Patients with higher cognitive functioning versus lower cognitive functioning on admission showed better neurorehabilitation measurement scores at discharge (p<0.01). Functional status on admission, cognitive status on admission and discharge when considered simultaneously were significantly correlated with the discharge functional scores (R2=0.61, p<0.05).  Patients with TBI do have an improved outcome after receiving rehabilitation. Overall, our results suggest that measurement of cognitive status and an early problem focused cognitive rehabilitation might facilitate recovery and rehabilitation outcome.

Keywords : Traumatic brain injury, disability, functional assessment, cognitive status