NQPC-07 IMMEDIATE POSTOPERATIVE REHABILITATION FOR PATIENTS WITH NEWLY-DIAGNOSED GLIOMA

BACKGROUNDS: Importance of early intensive rehabilitation is recently emphasized not only for Stroke Unit but for Intensive Care Unit. We have started such early comprehensive rehabilitation for patients after brain tumor surgery. Rehabilitation therapists were specially assigned to our brain surgery unit as members of the ward staffers. The purpose of this study is to show how this rehabilitation trial works for post-surgery patients with glioma. METHODS: Thirty-two patients with glioma (20 males and 12 females) who were admitted to our institution in the year of 2018 were included. Mean age was 61.8±13.3 years; glioblastoma was the major tumor type (24 patients). We retrospectively analyzed rehabilitation outcome focusing on improvement of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores during hospitalization. RESULTS: Mean duration from surgery to the first rehabilitation intervention was 2.4±1.2 days, and mean hospital stay was 74.4±31.4days. Twenty patients were discharged to home (62 %) and 12 were transferred to other hospitals for convalescence. Motor, cognitive and total FIM scores were 41.0±22.2, 18.0±7.5, and 59.1±27.3 before surgery, whereas they were 61.4±28.6, 21.8±9.4, and 83.2±36.9, respectively, at discharge. Motor FIM items revealed more remarkable improvement than those of cognitive ones. Since starting the early intensive rehabilitation trial, patients with brain tumor have been systematically rehabilitated with an organized manner before and after surgery. CONCLUSION: Early intensive rehabilitation for patients with brain tumor is recommended to be done by on-ward therapists who are assigned to work specially as members of the ward. Both motor and cognitive improvement is expected during hospitalization even in patients with malignant brain tumor.