Incidence and management of complications during posttraumatic early rehabilitation

Early rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury has become a worldwide accepted interface between intensive care medicine and rehabilitation to aim for a better functional outcome of the surviving patients. So each chain can only be as strong as its weakest link, and there is still need for well defined quality standards depending on the medical demands during this period of treatment. Hence we were interested in quantifying the complications occurring until discharge to further rehabilitation with special regard on severe physical handicaps and organ failure necessitating surgical or intensive care therapy. Our results demonstrate that early rehabilitation is a part of intensive care medicine with enhanced approaches to preserve rehabilitation potential of the brain and for coma stimulation.