POSTCONCUSSION SYNDROME FOLLOWING MILD HEAD-INJURY - HOW SIGNIFICANT WHEN IT IS WORK-RELATED

Postconcussional complaints are common after mild head injury. These s ymptoms can be so severe that some patients are unable to return to th eir previous employment. The purpose of this study is to investigate h ow important is work-related injury as a factor in determining the deg ree of disability caused by postconcussional symptoms. We studied 67 p atients suffering from postconcussion syndrome after a mild head injur y. These patients were divided into two groups, work-related injury an d non-work-related injury. The results of this study demonstrated that the median duration of sick leave and the median amount of compensati on were significantly higher in the work-related group (8 months vs. 1 month, P = 0.0007; US$9000 vs. US$500, P = 0.0035, respectively). Onl y 41% of the work-related injured patients returned to work, compared with 85.7% in the nonwork-related injury group (P = 0.0022). The resul ts of this study strongly suggested that work-related injury is a sign ificant factor in determining the degree of disability associated with postconcussion syndrome.