Functional Gains in Children Receiving Inpatient Rehabilitation After Brain Tumor Resection.

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether children with brain tumors treated with resection benefit from inpatient rehabilitation and to explore what factors present at admission may predict better functional outcomes.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort design.

SETTING

Pediatric inpatient rehabilitation unit.

PARTICIPANTS

Forty patients (N=40; ages 3-21y; 42.5% female) admitted to the rehabilitation unit between 2003 and 2015 after brain tumor resection.

INTERVENTIONS

Patients received multidisciplinary rehabilitation therapies as part of their admission to inpatient rehabilitation, including occupational, physical, and speech-language therapy.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Functional outcomes included the FIM for Children (WeeFIM) at discharge and 3-month follow-up as well as WeeFIM efficiency.

RESULTS

A repeated-measures analysis of variance using patient WeeFIM Developmental Functional Quotients (DFQs) at admission, discharge, and 3-month follow-up showed significant gains in total WeeFIM DFQ scores across time. Admission WeeFIM DFQ, time from surgery to admission, and age at admission provided the strongest model for predicting discharge and 3-month follow-up WeeFIM DFQ scores. Admission WeeFIM DFQ and time from surgery to admission provided the strongest model for predicting WeeFIM efficiency. Total Neurological Predictor Scale (NPS) at admission did not add predictive power to any of the 3 models over and above patient characteristics (admission WeeFIM DFQ, age at admission, time from surgery to admission).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients admitted to inpatient rehabilitation after brain tumor resection made significant functional gains (as measured by the WeeFIM) during inpatient rehabilitation and continued to make significant gains 3 months after discharge. Age and timing of admission provided the strongest models for predicting patient outcomes. The NPS did not predict functional outcomes after rehabilitation when controlling for other variables known to influence rehabilitation outcomes.