Rehabilitation outcomes after anoxic brain injury: a case-controlled comparison with traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the functional outcomes of patients with anoxic brain injury (AnBI) compared with control patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) during inpatient rehabilitation. DESIGN Matched case-controlled design. SETTING Inpatient neurorehabilitation program. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen patients with AnBI and 15 patients with TBI. METHODS Data of 15 patients with a primary diagnosis of AnBI were retrospectively reviewed and matched to 15 patients with TBI admitted within the same time frame on age, acute care length of stay, and functional status at admission. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Functional outcome was assessed by the use of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). RESULTS Compared with the control patients with TBI, patients with AnBI achieved significantly lower FIM motor gain (16.3+/-15.6 versus 5.7+/-10.7, respectively) and efficiency scores (0.27+/-0.28 versus 0.06+/-0.13), discharge FIM cognition scores (25.9+/-5.9 versus 21.7+/-7.3), total FIM gain (22.5+/-19.6 versus 9.1+/-12.1), and total FIM efficiency scores (0.39+/-0.38 versus 0.10+/-0.16; all P<.05). CONCLUSIONS Results suggest a slower rate of recovery for patients with AnBI compared with TBI, with physical recovery being slower than cognitive recovery as measured by the FIM during inpatient rehabilitation when matched according to preinjury characteristics and functional status at rehabilitation admission. Future studies on larger samples of patients with AnBI and TBI that use a case-controlled design and longer-term outcome measurement are warranted to further clarify the differences in functional outcomes between these groups and to assess whether optimal rehabilitation interventions differ for these groups.