Violent injuries have become an increasingly prevalent cause of trauma
tic brain injury (TBI). These injuries can be classified as either pen
etrating or non-penetrating in nature. While much of the research on v
iolence has been within a military population, there exists a marked d
ifference between military and civilian injuries. Prior work has repor
ted relatively poor outcomes for those individuals who have suffered p
enetrating TBIs, but little has been done to assess specific functiona
l outcome parameters in survivors. We examined 25 subjects that had su
stained blunt injuries and 25 cases with penetrating injuries as a res
ult of a violent act. Cases were matched by initial Glasgow Coma Scale
(GCS), age and educational level. Mean GCS for this study sample was
8.8. The following outcome variables were assessed at rehabilitation a
dmission and discharge and at 1 year post injury: Disability Rating Sc
ale (DRS), Rancho Los Amigos Scale (LCFS), Functional Independence Mea
sure (FIM) (ambulation, expression items), length of stay, and cost of
care. Student's t-tests were performed to assess for differences betw
een the two groups. No significant differences were noted between the
groups for any of the outcome variables. Although penetrating injuries
may have a higher initial mortality, those who survive to come to reh
abilitation appear to have similar outcomes to those patients with non
penetrating violence related injuries.