The sooner patients begin neurorehabilitation, the better their functional outcome

To determine whether early neurorehabilitation improves a patient's functional recovery.

A retrospective study was carried out on patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) who underwent a minimum of 4 months of integral and multidisciplinary neurorehabilitation.

Fifty-eight patients with severe TBI were assessed at admission and at discharge using the FIM + FAM scale. Two groups were formed based on time elapsed from brain injury to onset of rehabilitation. The early treatment group (ET) included patients who began rehabilitation within the first 9 months post-trauma; the late treatment group (LT) began after the 9-month cut-off date. Intra- and between-group analysis of FIM + FAM scores were carried out at admission and discharge. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the best predictors for functional rehabilitation.

After neurorehabilitation, all subjects showed significant improvement in cognitive, motor, communication and psychosocial functioning. Moreover, the ET group showed better global functional outcome at discharge than patients who began later treatment. The best predictors for functional neurorehabilitation were months since injury, age, GCS score and months of treatment.

It is concluded that the sooner patients begin neurorehabilitation, the better their functional outcome.