Journal international de médecine physique et de réadaptation
Libre accès

Abstrait

Physician Heal Thyself

Thomas DJB

Hippocrates reported that ‘No head Injury was so severe that it must be despaired of!’ over two thousand years ago [1]. We now divide Traumatic Brain Injury into open and closed varieties, with open brain injury having a communication between the brain and the external world. Closed brain injury can still be a very severe injury, with contusion and oedema. As well as the initial injury there are complicating factors which make rehabilitation difficult. It was previously recognised that a long period of Post Traumatic amnesia meant patients did not benefit from rehabilitation for some time [2]. Similarly associated psychiatric illness [3] and age [4] can limit rehabilitation. Dramatic interventions, such as Hypothermia have been used to preserve Brain Function, but the effectiveness is not generally accepted [5]. Rehabilitation with a trained team is currently the best practice.