OBJECTIVE To investigate the functional outcomes of patients with anoxic brain injury (AnBI) compared with control patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) during inpatient rehabilitation. DESIGN Matched case-controlled design. SETTING Inpatient neurorehabilitation program. PARTICIPANTS Fifteen patients with AnBI and 15 patients with TBI. METHODS Data of 15 patients with a primary dia...

[Purpose] We performed early physiotherapy for elderly patients with pneumonia admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), and examined the effects of this early physiotherapy on the severity of pneumonia. [Subjects and Methods] Patients for whom physiotherapy was started the day after admission to the ICU (acute phase) were assigned to the early intervention group and compared with patients in t...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence of comorbid diseases and their impact on functional outcome in patients after stroke. DESIGN A prospective study. SUBJECTS A total of 140 patients after stroke. METHODS Comorbidities were assessed with the Liu comorbidity index. Functional independence was evaluated using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The relationship between comorbidities ...

Stroke welcomes Letters to the Editor and will publish them, if suitable, as space permits. They should not exceed 1,000 words (excluding references) and may be subject to editing or abridgment. Please submit letters in duplicate, typed double-spaced. Include a fax number for the corresponding author. To the Editor: The anticipation of a patient's length of stay has obvious ramifications for th...

It is important to identify in advance patients who will achieve the greatest functional gains from rehabilitation therapy, as specialist rehabilitation resources are still scarce in Japan. The purpose of this study was to determine whether functional score at admission influences the functional change (functional score at discharge minus functional score at admission) after inpatient rehabilit...

PURPOSE To prepare a Japanese-language version of the Physical Performance Test (PPT) Battery and assess its reliability and validity. METHOD Activity limitations by pain were evaluated by means of the Japanese-language version of the PPT Battery in 82 patients with chronic pain in the limbs and trunk. Two self-report questionnaires, one related to sensory evaluation of pain, and the other re...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Few clinical tools available for assessment of postural abilities are specifically designed for stroke patients. Most have major floor or ceiling effects, and their metrological properties are not always completely known. METHODS The Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke patients (PASS), adapted from the BL Motor Assessment, was elaborated in concordance with 3 main idea...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Despite recent progress in stroke prevention and acute treatment, neurorehabilitation remains one of the main methods of treatment in the management of stroke patients. The aim of this study is to point out some important predicting factors of in-hospital neurorehabilitation outcomes. METHODS A rehabilitation registry including all patients who had undergone a standardiz...

This study examined functional outcomes, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and satisfaction in a group of Veterans who received physical therapy via an in-home video telerehabilitation program, the Rural Veterans TeleRehabilitation Initiative (RVTRI). A retrospective, pre-post study design was used. Measures obtained from 26 Veterans who received physical therapy in the RVTRI program betw...

BACKGROUND Rehabilitation in patients with disabilities is an important aspect of tertiary prevention. Severity of disability, evaluated by global measures of autonomy, are essential for functional outcome evaluation. AIM To determine the effectiveness of a rehabilitation programme in terms of percentage functional improvement (PFI); to verify the role of gender, age and length of stay (LOS),...