Efectividad de un programa de rehabilitación multicomponente para pacientes con daño cerebral adquirido y la influencia del tiempo transcurrido desde la lesión hasta el inicio de la intervención.

Abstract

Background: Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) people present diverse functional difficulties at different levels (physic, cognitive, emotional). Rehabilitation programs are effective improving the distinct affected areas, however, scant studies have analyze their effectivity in the Spanish population. Therefore, this research aims to study the effectivity of a multi-disciplinary rehabilitation program for ABI people and the influence of time interval from brain injury to rehabilitation start. Method: 50 ABI patients from the National Public Health System were referred to UNER clinic, of which 40% (n=20) were women, with mean age 50.34 years (SD=15.74). Participants completed a 6-month rehabilitation program composed of 5 weekly multidisciplinary sessions of neuropsychology, occupational, speech and physical therapy. Program effectivity was analyzed assessing patients’ functional level before and after intervention through the Functional Independence and Assessment Measure (FimFam). Likewise, FimFam scores were compared between patients with Early Rehabilitation Start (ERS; ≤3moths post-injury) and Late Start (LRS; >3moths post-injury). Results: Statistical significant differences were found in FimFam scores before (M=129.28) and after intervention (M=155.52; r=0.61). Moreover, ERS patients had significant superior FimFam scores after intervention (M=174.55) than LRS patients (M=142.83; r=0.39). Conclusions: This multi-disciplinary rehabilitation program seems to be effective improving ABI patients’ functioning, emphasizing cognitive factor performance. Furthermore, these results suggest a critic period of early rehabilitation start of up to 3 months that could optimized ABI recovery. Future experimental studies with larger samples are needed to corroborate these results.