Before and After Traumatic Brain Injury

Aside from physical debilitation  one wonders how different life can be for someone that has suffered a TBI one year later. Drs. EK Wise , C. Mathews-Dalton etal conducted a survey about the impact of traumatic brain injury on participation in leisure activities.

Participants in the survey were rehabilitation inpatients whose mean age was 35.3 years. 77% of them were male and 77% of them were white. All of them had moderate to severe TBI.

 One year after the injury, 81% had not returned to where they were preinjury with leisure participation. The activities most of them  discontinued included  drug and alcohol use, partying,  and  sports activities. Watching television became the new leisure activity for most of them. A small percentage returned to those activities within 4 months of the injury. About sixty percent of those who didn’t return to their preinjury levels were somewhat  bothered by the changes.

The conclusions that the researchers reached was that after one year from the initial injury, most TBI survivors engaged in fewer leisure activities than before. The activities they did join were more sedentary and less social and they were not satisfied  with these changes. Considering which activities they participated in before (as above)  discontinuing them may be considered as a positive change, but there were few new ones to replace them.

Many TBI patients, unfortunately suffer permanent physical damage but for those who have not the plan of action would be to work at regaining their former strengths and abilities. This can be done with vigorous activities and exercise. In considering which physical therapysolutions to use the most effective products and devices should be considered. The TUTOR system is one of those.

The recently developed HANDTUTOR and its sister devices (ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR) have become a key system in neuromuscular rehabilitation for stroke victims and those recovering from brain and spinal injuries, Parkinson’s, MS, CP and other limbmovement limitations. These innovative physical therapy products implement an impairment based program with augmented motion feedback that encourages motor learning through intensive active exercises and movement practice. The HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR consist of wearable gloves and braces that detect limb movement showing the patient how much active or assisted active movement they are actually doing. The rehabilitation software uses special rehabilitation games to set a new target for this movement in terms of the patient’s ability to move their affected limb. The devices then measure the limb movement and give feedback on the success of the patient in trying to gain this new movement objective.  In this  way the TUTOR system provides exercises that are challenging and motivating and allow for repetitive and intensive exercise practice.

The TUTOR system can also be used in the patient’s home through telerehabilitation and is now part of the rehabilitation program of leading U.S. German, Italian, French, UK and other foreign hospitals and are fully certified by the FDA and CE. See WWW.MEDITOUCH.CO.IL for more information.