Rehospitalization During 9 Months After Inpatient Rehabilitation for Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective: To assess the frequency of, causes for, and factors associated with acute rehospitalization during 9 months after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: Multicenter observational cohort.

Setting: Community.

Participants: Individuals with TBI (N=1850) admitted for inpatient rehabilitation.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Occurrences of proxy or self-report of postrehabilitation acute care rehospitalization, as well as length of and causes for rehospitalizations.

Results: A total of 510 participants (28%) had experienced 775 acute rehospitalizations. All experienced 1 admission (510 participants [66%]), whereas 154 (20%) had 2 admissions, 60 (8%) had 3, 23 (3%) had 4, 27 had between 5 and 11, and 1 had 12. The most common rehospitalization causes were infection (15%), neurological (13%), neurosurgical (11%), injury (7%), psychiatric (7%), and orthopedic (7%). The mean time from rehabilitation discharge to first rehospitalization was 113 days. The mean rehospitalization duration was 6.5 days. Logistic regression analyses revealed that older age, history of seizures before injury or during acute care or rehabilitation, history of brain injuries, and non-brain injury medical severity increased the risk of rehospitalization. Injury etiology of motor vehicle collision and high motor functioning at discharge decreased rehospitalization risk.

Conclusions: Approximately 28% of patients with TBI were rehospitalized within 9 months of TBI rehabilitation discharge owing to various medical and surgical reasons. Future research should evaluate whether some of these occurrences may be preventable (such as infections, injuries, and psychiatric disorders) and should evaluate the extent to which persons at risk may benefit from additional screening, surveillance, and treatment protocols.