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Published on: February 16, 2011
Health-related quality of life during the first year after severe brain trauma with and without polytrauma
Marcela Lippert-Grüner1, Marc Maegele, Heinz Haverkamp
1Department of Neurosurgery, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. marcela.lippert.gruener@medizin.uni-koeln.de
Objective:
The increasing number of patients surviving severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) but with significant sensorimotor and neuropsychological deficits is a challenge to rehabilitation medicine. So far, most research initiatives have focused on mortality rates, physiological or economic parameters to estimate therapeutic effects of rehabilitation strategies. Investigations on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after TBI with and without concomitant polytrauma are rare compared to other disorders.
Design/Patients:
A prospective study was conducted to investigate HRQoL using the SF-36 questionnaire in 49 patients with sTBI (Glasgow Coma Scale < 9 for more than 24 hours) with and without concomitant polytrauma 6 and 12 months after injury.
Results:
The SF-36 score profiles 6 and 12 months after trauma were similar. Scores 12 months after trauma, however, were higher in 7/8 dimensions indicating an improvement over time. Similar observations were made for physical and mental sum scores. There was no difference in the SF-36 scoring pattern between the patients with isolated TBI and the patients with concomitant polytrauma, except for physical functioning after 12 months.
Conclusion:
While there is significant overall improvement of HRQoL over time, sTBI appears to bear major influence on post-traumatic HRQoL and outcome.
