Post-traumatic amnesia and its relationship to the functional outcome of people with severe traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship between Post-Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) duration, length of stay and functional outcomes in Australian in-patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

DESIGN

Retrospective, descriptive study using prospectively collected data from the Uniform Data Set for Medical Rehabilitation (UDSMR).

METHODS

Prospective collection of Westmead PTA scores and analysis of database for admissions for primary TBI rehabilitation from 1993-2003. Functional Independence Measure (FIM) was used to measure functional outcome. Statistical analysis using SPSS Version 13.

RESULTS

Six hundred and thirty-eight consecutive admissions; 611 patients had PTA classified by ranges, 436 of whom had an exact number of PTA days. Mean age 37.6 years; more than 90% had a PTA duration greater than 1 week. Significant predictors of discharge FIM scores and total length of hospitalization were PTA duration, admission FIM scores and acute length of hospitalization.

CONCLUSIONS

PTA duration correlates with length of hospitalization and discharge function. PTA duration affects recovery rate. Implications include use of PTA duration for prognosticating, discharge planning and funding systems.