Rehabilitation pathways in adult brain tumor patients in the first 12 months of disease. A retrospective analysis of services utilization in 719 patients.

Purpose: Although previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of rehabilitation programs for brain tumor (BT) patients and the positive impact on quality of life of functional gain, there are few studies focusing on specific rehabilitation management of brain tumor patients.

Methods: With the aim to evaluate the pattern of rehabilitation care and health services utilization in patients with brain tumor, we retrospectively analyzed administrative data on a large cohort of brain tumor patients diagnosed during the period 2008-2009 in the Lazio Region. Pattern of rehabilitation care was analyzed during a follow-up of 12 months after diagnosis. Data for this study were gathered and linked from two sources: (1) hospital discharge records stored into the Lazio Regional Health System database and (2) rehabilitation pathways database including inpatient and outpatient interventions files.

Results: We identified 789 patients with an ICD-9-CM code of 191.** in the Regional Health System databases in the study period. Among 719 patients included in this study, 92 (12.8 %) were treated with inpatient rehabilitation program, 22 (3.1 %) received an outpatient personalized program with intensive rehabilitation plan, and 85 (11.8 %) received outpatients rehabilitation interventions.

Conclusions: Our retrospective analysis on the rehabilitation service utilization in a large cohort of BT patients shows that a limited number of patients received rehabilitation interventions during the first year after diagnosis. Nevertheless, the rehabilitation needs in BT patients are largely unmet and the lack of defined physical and cognitive rehabilitation strategies may negatively affect the functional independence and the short- and long-term quality of life.