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BACKGROUND: The minimally conscious state (MCS) resulting from severe brain damage refers to a subset of patients who demonstrate unequivocal, but intermittent, behavioral evidence of awareness of self or their environment. Although clinical examination may suggest residual cognitive function, neurobiological correlates of putative cognition in MCS have not been ...

Many individuals who sustain severe brain injury experience prolonged or permanent disorders of consciousness. While these disorders may appear homogeneous, important distinctions exist in prognosis and clinical management. Studies suggest, however, that the incidence of diagnostic inaccuracy is high in both acute care and rehabilitation settings. In this paper, ...

Disorders of consciousness continue to be the subject of hot debate in healthcare settings, research consortiums, bioethics departments and media forums. There are no standards of care to guide assessment and treatment decisions resulting in wide disparities in daily practice. In response to this problem, expert panels in neurology ...

There is no agreement as to where the limits of consciousness lie, or even if these putative borders exist. Problems inherent to the study of consciousness continue to confound efforts to establish a universally accepted theory of consciousness. Consequently, clinical definitions of consciousness and unconsciousness are unavoidably arbitrary. Recently, ...

OBJECTIVES: Participation in meaningful life situations is an important aspect of functioning after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, to date, few studies have included measures of social participation or community integration as outcome measures after TBI rehabilitation. This paper is a selective review of the literature that examines the ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive cognitive rehabilitation program (ICRP) compared with standard neurorehabilitation (SRP) for persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN: Nonrandomized controlled intervention trial. SETTING: Community-based, postacute outpatient brain injury rehabilitation program. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-six persons with TBI. INTERVENTIONS: Participants in ICRP (n=27) received an ...

OBJECTIVE: To update the previous evidence-based recommendations of the Brain Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine for cognitive rehabilitation of people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke, based on a systematic review of the literature from 1998 through 2002. DATA SOURCES: PubMed ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine characteristics and diversity among vocational treatment services in model programs for traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation. SETTING: Vocational or postacute treatment components of 16 TBI Model System (TBIMS) centers. PARTICIPANTS: Vocational director/coordinator from each TBIMS surveyed in semistructured phone interview. MEASURE: Survey of vocational services for ...

OBJECTIVE: To further evaluate the construct validity of bedside screening measures of orientation (Orientation Log [O-Log]) and cognition (Cognitive-Log [Cog-Log]) by examining the relationship between these measures and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). DESIGN: Correlational analysis used to assess the degree of overlapping variance among the O-Log, Cog-Log, and ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the predictive validity of a brief neuropsychologic test battery consisting of the Galveston Orientation and Amnesia Test, the California Verbal Learning Test-II, Trail-Making Test (TMT), Symbol Digit Modalities Test, grooved pegboard, phonemic and categorical word generation tasks, the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR), and the ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine the interrater agreement and responsiveness to change of the Moss Attention Rating Scale (MARS), 22-item version, during acute inpatient rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN: Observational study of clinician ratings (physical therapy [PT], occupational therapy [OT], speech-language pathology [SLP], nursing) of each patient's attentional function ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare 2 techniques of botulinum toxin injection for elbow flexor hypertonia. DESIGN: Parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial with blinded outcome assessment. SETTING: Laboratory, tertiary rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (N=31) with acquired brain injury (21 with traumatic brain injury, 8 with stroke, 2 with hypoxic encephalopathy) provided 36 sets ...

Purpose.To examine experiences among individuals in the USA with traumatic brain injury (TBI) regarding their access to and use of the Internet, problems encountered, and desire for improved Internet access and skills. Method.An in-depth survey was administered as a semi-structured interview to 80 individuals at least 3 months post ...

Objectives: To determine the expressed needs of persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their primary family caregivers. Design: Semistructured interviews with content-analytic techniques to identify respondents’ needs. Participants: Eighty persons with TBI, with an average time since their most severe TBI of 5.8 years, and 85 primary support ...

Study design: Direct observation of a constrained consensus-building process in three culturally independent five-person panels of rehabilitation professionals from the US, Italy and Canada. Objectives: To illustrate cultural differences in belief among rehabilitation professionals about the relative importance of alternative functional goals during spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. Setting: ...

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a neuroimaging technique that utilizes light in the near-infrared spectrum (between 700 and 1000 nm) to detect hemodynamic changes within the cortex when sensory, motor, or cognitive activation occurs. FNIRS principles have been used to study brain oxygenation for several decades, but have more ...

Abstract not available

Abstract not available

Objective: To determine the relationship between the H-reflex (H/M ratio) and continuous intrathecal baclofen (CITB) dose after pump implantation for control of spastic hypertonia. Methods: Soleus H-reflexes were serially recorded in 34 subjects (19 men, mean age 32 years, mean follow-up 1.7 years) during simple continuous mode of CITB ...