Neuroimaging of anoxic injury: implications for neurorehabilitation

Anoxic brain injury is common and occurs in a wide variety of disorders. The anoxic injury has characteristic pathologies in particular affecting the medial temporal lobe, basal ganglia and deep white matter. The neural injury is associated with significant and persistent cognitive impairments and poor functional outcomes, related in part to the severity of anoxia and assumed to relate to the degree of structural damage evidenced on neuroimaging during the chronic stage. To date neuroimaging following ABI has been used diagnostically with less research focused on guiding or predicting rehabilitation outcome. Because of the distribution of these lesions/abnormalities the degree of damage has practical implications for rehabilitation outcome. Research is needed to understand cognitive and functional outcomes following ABI as well as whether specific rehabilitation techniques or strategies will result in better outcomes.