Head injury rehabilitation: benefit of early intervention.

Severely head injured patients in an acute rehabilitation setting were retrospectively divided into early and late rehabilitation admission groups (admitted before and after 35 days post injury). The 2 groups consisted of 16 and 20 patients respectively and were matched for length of coma, age, level of disability, neurosurgical procedures required, and other factors which might bias results due to less morbidity in the early admission group. Findings indicated that late admission patients required twice as much acute rehabilitation as early admission patients, even though both groups were comparable in initial disability and at outcome 2 years post-injury. Study findings implied potential cost savings of an average $40,000 per patient for acute hospital care. These benefits may be due to improved neurologic outcome or prevention of secondary complications.