The tracheotomy tube weaning in patients with severe acquired brain injury: comparison of two operative procedures in a postacute rehabilitation hospital.

Background: Despite the high frequency of tracheotomy in severe acquired brain injury (sABI) patients, available literature about the weaning procedure is mainly represented by expert opinions with no standardized and evidence-based criteria.

Aim: The Institute of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine "Gervasutta" adopted a new decannulation procedure, recommended by the Italian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (SIMFER). This study evaluates whether the new procedure helps to improve the decannulation process of sABI patients.

Polypharmacy and the use of medications in inpatients with acquired brain injury during post-acute rehabilitation: A cross-sectional study.

Background: This study assessed the use of medications during inpatient post-acute rehabilitation for acquired brain injury (ABI).

Materials And Methods: All inpatients with ABI undergoing post-acute rehabilitation in centres identified through the roster of the Italian Society for Rehabilitation Medicine were included. A designated physician in each centre collected information through a structured questionnaire.

Mental time line distortion in right-brain-damaged patients: Evidence from a dynamic spatiotemporal task.

Objective: Time is an elusive phenomenon that is difficult to grasp with our senses. Recent work has shown how spatial representations often lie beneath temporal ones, as shown by a family of spatiotemporal congruency effects. For instance, individuals who have been exposed to left-to-right orthographic systems are better at judging short durations with their left effector and long durations with their right effector than vice versa, a phenomenon known as the spatial-temporal association of response codes (STEARC) effect.

Prescribing practice and off-label use of psychotropic medications in post-acute brain injury rehabilitation centres: a cross-sectional survey.

Objective: Guidance on pharmacotherapy of neurobehavioural sequelae post-acquired brain injury (ABI) is limited. Clinicians face the choice of prescribing off-label. This survey assesses prescribing practice and off-label use of psychotropic medications in Italian brain injury rehabilitation centres and factors associated with atypical antipsychotics use.

The prevalence of vegetative and minimally conscious states: a systematic review and methodological appraisal.

Objectives: To systematically review prevalence studies of vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS) in geographically defined populations, to appraise study methods and assess sources of heterogeneity.

Methods: MEDLINE, EBM Reviews, and EMBASE databases were searched using key terms. Two reviewers independently identified pertinent articles and screened the references for additional studies.

The role of the basal ganglia in action imitation: neuropsychological evidence from Parkinson's disease patients.

Though previous studies have suggested that the basal ganglia are necessarily involved in action imitation, their precise role is unclear. An important source of evidence concerns patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who suffer basal ganglia impairments. Some studies report poor execution of observed meaningful (MF) transitive (tool-related) actions but normal performance with intransitive (non-tool-related) MF and meaningless (ML) actions (Leiguarda et al.

Preserved and impaired task-switching abilities in non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease.

Existing studies on task switching in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have led to somewhat different results. In particular, it is unclear whether PD patients have a deficit in attentional control. In this study, we assessed task-switching abilities in samples of non-demented PD patients and elderly controls.

Interference from retrieval cues in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: Existing studies on memory interference in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have provided mixed results and it is unknown whether PD patients have problems in overcoming interference from retrieval cues. We investigated this issue by using a part-list cuing paradigm. In this paradigm, after the study of a list of items, the presentation of some of these items as retrieval cues hinders the recall of the remaining ones.

Vesicourethral dysfunction in multiple sclerosis. Initial assessment based on lower urinary tract symptoms and their pathophysiology.

The most common lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in multiple sclerosis (MS) are irritative, obstructive or mixed (association of irritative and obstructive LUTS). Generally irritative LUTS are typical in patients with cortical, brainstem or mild spinal cord lesions; obstructive symptoms are frequent in patients with spinal cord lesions (below the pontine micturition centre) or at the level of the sacral micturition centre. Irritative LUTS are often associated with detrusor overactivity, whereas obstructive LUTS are associated with detrusor sphincter dyssynergia or detrusor areflexia/hypocontractility.

Supervisory and routine processes in noun and verb generation in nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease.

Despite the increased comprehension of the role of the basal ganglia in cognitive functions such as learning, attention, and executive functions, the exact implication of these structures in language remains unclear. A specific role of basal ganglia in language has been proposed. Nonetheless, a recent hypothesis gives the basal ganglia a non-language specific role in the inhibition of competing alternatives during later controlled processes of language production.

The validity of the hospital anxiety and depression scale and the geriatric depression scale in Parkinson's disease.

We assessed the concurrent validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) against the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Forty-six non-demented PD patients were assessed by a neurologist on the Ham-D. Patients also completed four mood rating scales: the HADS, the GDS, the VAS and the Face Scale.