Cognitive and Functional Outcomes following Inpatient Rehabilitation in Patients with Acquired Brain Injury: A Prospective Follow-up Study

OBJECTIVES: To study the effects of cognitive retraining and inpatient rehabilitation to study the effects of cognitive retraining and inpatient rehabilitation in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI). DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a prospective follow-up study in a neurological rehabilitation department of quaternary research hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with ABI, mean age 36.43 years (standard deviation [SD] 12.6, range 18–60), mean duration of illness 77.87 days (SD 91.78, range 21–300 days) with cognitive, physical, and motor-sensory deficits underwent inpatient rehabilitation for minimum of 14 sessions over a period of 3 weeks. Nineteen patients (63%) reported in the follow-up of minimum 3 months after discharge. Type of ABI, cognitive status (using Montreal Cognitive assessment scale [MoCA] and cognitive Functional Independence Measure [Cog FIM](®)), and functional status (motor FIM(®)) were noted at admission, discharge, and follow-up and scores were compared. RESULTS: Patients received inpatient rehabilitation addressing cognitive and functional impairments. Baseline MoCA, motor FIM, and Cog FIM scores were 15.27 (SD = 7.2, range 3–30), 31.57 (SD = 15.6, range 12–63), and 23.47 (SD = 9.7, range 5–35), respectively. All the parameters improved significantly at the time of discharge (MoCA = 19.6 ± 7.4 range 3–30, motor FIM(®) = 61.33 ± 18.7 range 12–89, Cog FIM(®) =27.23 ± 8.10 range 9–35). Patients were discharged with home-based programs. Nineteen patients reported in follow-up and observed to have maintained cognition on MoCA (18.8 ± 6.8 range 6–27), significantly improved (P < 0.01) on Cog FIM(®) (28.0 ± 7.7 range 14–35) and motor FIM(®) =72.89 ± 16.2 range 40–96) as compare to discharge scores. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive and functional outcomes improve significantly with dedicated and specialized inpatient rehabilitation in ABI patients, which is sustainable over a period.