Functional outcomes in patients with brain tumor after inpatient rehabilitation: comparison with traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the functional outcome, length of stay, and discharge disposition of individuals with brain tumor versus those with acute traumatic brain injury.

DESIGN: In this study, 78 brain tumor patients were one-to-one matched by location of lesion and age with 78 acute traumatic brain injury patients. Outcome was measured by using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM 228) on admission and discharge. The FIM change and FIM efficiency were also calculated. FIM data were analyzed in three subsets, i.e., activities of daily living, mobility, and cognition. Discharge disposition and rehabilitation length of stay were also compared.

RESULTS: Demographic variables of race, marital status, and payer source were comparable for the two groups. No significant difference was found between the brain tumor and the traumatic brain injury populations with respect to total admission FIM, total discharge FIM, and FIM efficiency. The brain injury population had a significantly greater change in FIM. The tumor group had a significantly shorter rehabilitation length of stay and a greater discharge to community rate.

CONCLUSIONS: Thus, individuals with brain tumor can achieve comparable functional outcome and have a shorter rehabilitation length of stay and greater discharge to community rate than individuals with brain injury.