LATE IMPROVEMENTS IN MOBILITY AFTER ACQUIRED BRAIN INJURIES IN CHILDREN

The purpose of this investigation was to describe the late improvement s in functional mobility in children who have sustained severe acquire d anoxic or traumatic brain injuries, Ninety-eight children from a con secutive series of 199 with acquired brain injuries met inclusion crit eria, As expected, children with traumatic injuries had better mobilit y at time of discharge from rehabilitation than did children with anox ic injury, In addition, children with traumatic injuries improved more in mobility status during the first 2 years after injury than did chi ldren with anoxic injury, The children who continued to improve in mob ility after discharge were unconscious for a shorter time, Children wh o became community ambulators during the first year after discharge ha d higher mobility ratings at discharge, Although children who eventual ly achieved more functional mobility were admitted to rehabilitation s ervice sooner after injury, discriminant analysis revealed that the du ration of unconsciousness, and therefore severity of injury, was more closely correlated with the final mobility status. (C) 1997 by Elsevie r Science Inc. All rights reserved.