Rehabilitation after moderate and severe traumatic brain injury - Guidelines of the Slovenian Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury is any non-degenerative and non-congenital injury of brain and surrounding tissue caused by external mechanical force. Its short and long term consequences on cognitive, behavioral and physical functioning are not limited to injury itself but is severly connected with the secondary cellular metabolic and vascular changes after the acute impact. Due to high mortality, extremelly demanding acute treatment, long term need for intensive rehabilitation and inevitably permanent deficits on subject`s multi-level functioning, we understand severe traumatic brain injury as the most severe medico-social problem of the developed world. There are many different national guidelines available in literature for rehabilitation of subjects after traumatic brain injury. Protocol for early recognition and prevention of highly expected complications after and during admission in rehabilitation progremme, serves as a protection against events that to often prevent the effective progress in rehabilitation, mean serious long-term consequenses for patient and cause additional costs of medical care. Slovenian guidelines for the rehabilitation moderate / severe traumatic brain injury in acute and post-acute phase are presented in the paper.

Keywords

• traumatic brain injury, brain injury complications, clinical guidelines, rehabilitation.