The physical abilities of patients with traumatic brain injury according to functional independence measure on admission and at discharge during hospitalization

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common cause of permanent impairment and physical disability in the humans. Many interventions have been used to diminish these problems. Functional independence measure (FIM) is one of the measurement instruments to assess the severity of patient’s disability during and after receiving several interventions. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to study the physical level of the TBI patients at admission and discharge phase, using FIM questionnaire. Methods: Sixty-two patients with different TBI severity score which referred to the trauma center of poursina hospital were included to this study. The FIM questionnaire had been used to measure the patient’s physical disabilities at admission and discharge phase. The FIM has 18 items divided to 2 classifications; 1. Motor functions; 2. Cognitive functions. The maximum score a patient can gain on the FIM is 126 (completely independent) and the minimum score is 18 for a complete dependent person.Results: Statistical analysis with SPSS version 23.0 showed significant change in FIM total score mean from admission (23.08) to discharge (42.78) phase in survive patients and it was meaningfully indicate to the patient’s disability rate.Conclusion: The FIM scores mean at admission phase was less than its scores at discharge phase. It means that the physical disability of patients with TBI condition were more at admission phase

Keywords:

Traumatic brain injury , Disability , Questionnaire , Independence