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. 2024 Dec 18;10(1):81.
doi: 10.1038/s41394-024-00690-x.

Improving the rehabilitation of individuals admitted to England's National Spinal Injuries Centre with traumatic brain injury

Lawson Falshaw  1 , Nigel King  2   3 , Imogen Cotter  3
Affiliations

Improving the rehabilitation of individuals admitted to England's National Spinal Injuries Centre with traumatic brain injury

Lawson Falshaw et al. Spinal Cord Ser Cases. .

Abstract

Study design: Mixed methods service improvement project. Retrospective analysis of clinical documentation and qualitative focus group with clinicians.

Objectives: Although traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) often co-occur, many barriers have been found to identifying TBI in SCI rehabilitation and adapting treatment accordingly. This study aimed to compare the number of individuals with a TBI detected at England's National Spinal Injuries Centre to figures found in previous research and understand the barriers to adapting SCI rehabilitation in the presence of TBI.

Setting: England's National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Methods: This mixed methods study assessed the documentation at each stage of 88 patients' treatment where a TBI could be detected and used to inform rehabilitation, and subsequently, a focus group was conducted with staff to explore the barriers to detecting TBI and adapting SCI rehabilitation.

Results: Results suggested that data related to TBI were inconsistently recorded, the number of individuals recorded as having a TBI at the centre was lower than a recent study, and several barriers were interpreted from the focus group.

Conclusions: TBI in SCI populations may be an invisible unmet need. Several barriers may exist which prevent clinicians from detecting TBI in this population and adapting rehabilitation accordingly. Findings have implications for rehabilitation for individuals with TBI and SCI admitted to the service.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was conducted as a quality improvement project at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and was approved by the Trust’s Project Classification Group (Reference: PCG041). All methods were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations, including the Declaration of Helsinki. Patient consent was not required, as the project involved the use of secure, de-identified, and routinely collected service data to evaluate and improve clinical care within the service. Staff who participated in the focus group provided implied consent through their voluntary participation after being provided with information about the research. No identifiable information was published.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The different points at which TBI may be detected at the NSIC, and the corresponding documents screened.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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