Author Year

Country

Research Design

PEDro

Sample Size

Lendraitiene et al. (2016)

Lithuania

RCT

PEDro=4

N=52

Population: Severe TBI; Gender: Male=39, Female=13; GCS=3-8.

Intervention: Patients underwent individually tailored sessions of physical therapy every day in the acute phase post injury. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on duration of coma (group 1: up to 1 wk; group 2: ≥2 wk.)

Outcome Measures: Motor Assessment Scale (MAS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

1.        Group 2 showed significant improvement in motor function via MAS scores after physical therapy compared to before (p<0.05). When comparing the 2 groups, group 1 showed better improvement in MAS scores than those in group 2 (p<0.05).

2.        After acute physical therapy, a significant improvement in mental status via MMSE scores were observed in both groups (both p<0.05). Specifically, group 1 MMSE scores went from 1.4 to 2.2, and group 2 improved from 0.8 to 1.7.