Slow-to-recover severe traumatic brain injury: a review of outcomes and rehabilitation effectiveness

Severe traumatic brain injury may result in very severe disability with pro longed recovery. Because of this slow recovery, survivors of severe traumat ic brain injury may not be considered as good candidates for typical brain injury rehabilitation programmes and, thus, there is relatively little publ ished information concerning the nature of this group. The recent literatur e regarding functional outcomes and the effectiveness of rehabilitation for this sub-population of brain-injury survivors is reviewed and suggestions for further research are discussed. The existing evidence suggests that thi s emerging but important group of brain-injury survivors is capable of sign ificant functional recovery over a period of months-to-years after injury, and that rehabilitation may serve to further ameliorate disability and redu ce long-term costs of care. It is suggested that further research focus on delineating the nature of recovery in the slow-to-recover brain injury popu lation, exploring the current prevalence of slow-to-recover brain injury su rvivors, and assessing the effectiveness of currently existing programmes s pecializing in rehabilitation of this type.