FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME AFTER VIOLENCE RELATED TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

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.