Long-term Impact of Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

The thesis showed that a large percentage (43%) of patients, despite the severity of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), is able to perform work related activities after ten years, and has a normal Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) after three and ten years. Emotional status and cognitive performance after ten years were also found to be reasonably optimistic.

However, there are subgroups that perform worse in the long-term, for example 12% of the patients was not able to perform the total cognitive test battery, and 20% showed symptoms of depression.

At hospital discharge the cognitive status is predictive for long-term outcome with respect to employment and cognitive function after ten years. Depressive symptoms at hospital discharge or during follow-up have important negative impact on overall outcome, but most off all on HRQoL.

Taking the severity of TBI into account, these findings are relatively positive and should be taken considered in clinical decision making in both acute and subacute care settings.