Takatsugu OKAMOTO, Keiji HASHIMOTO, Masahiro OHASHI, Satoshi MIYANO

Kanagawa Rehabilitation Hospital

(Received 12 July 2004; accepted 24 November 2004)

Abstract: The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate the functional prognosis and other problems of 14 postresuscitation encephalopathy patients admitted to our hospital from May 2000 to November 2003. They were divided into two groups according to their present (1.5-6.5 years after onset) scores on the Supervision Rating Scale (SRS). Of these 14 patients, there were 6 good-prognosis patients (SRS1-7) and 8 poor-prognosis patients (SRS8-13). In a comparison of the two groups, significant differences were noted in the duration of severe consciousness disturbances evaluated by the Japan Coma Scale, the presence of diffuse brain atrophy and Mini-Mental State Examination scores. These were useful markers to predict functional prognosis. The “good” group showed significant improvement in their SRS scores during their first admission. On the other hand, in the “poor” group most of the patients did not show any SRS improvement and they also tended to have severe physical and cognitive impairment. Four patients in the “poor” group were so seriously impaired that they could not even perform the neuropsychological tests. After inpatient rehabilitation, family education and environmental preparation, all of the patients were able to return to their homes. When a family is cooperative and willing to take care of their loved one at home, our inpatient support program appeared to be quite useful.

Key words: post-resuscitation encephalopathy, rehabilitation, functional prognosis