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 prolonged recovery. Because of this slow recovery, survivors of severe traumatic brain injury may not be considered as good candidates for typical brain injury rehabilitation programmes and, thus, there is relatively little published information concerning the nature of this group. The recent literature 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 this emerging but important group of brain-injury survivors is capable of significant functional recovery over a period of months-to-years after injury, and that rehabilitation may serve to further ameliorate disability and reduce 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 population, exploring the current prevalence of slow-to-recover brain injury survivors, and assessing the effectiveness of currently existing programmes specializing in rehabilitation of this type.