Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive performance of patients with favorable outcomes, determined by the Glasgow Outcome Scale, 1 yr after hospital discharge due to severe traumatic brain injury.
Design: This was a prospective case-control study. From 163 consecutive adult patients with severe traumatic brain injury included in the study, 73 patients had a favorable outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale score of 4 or 5) 1 yr after hospital discharge and were eligible for the cognitive evaluation, of which 28 completed the evaluations. The latter were compared with 44 healthy controls.
Results: The average loss of cognitive performance among participants with traumatic brain injury varied between 13.35% and 43.49% compared with the control group. Between 21.4% and 32% of the patients performed below the 10th percentile on three language tests and two verbal memory tests, whereas 39% to 50% performed below this threshold on one language test and three memory tests. Longer hospital stay, older age, and lower education were the most important predictors of worse cognitive performance.
Conclusion: One year after a severe traumatic brain injury, a significant proportion of Brazilian patients with the favorable outcome determined by Glasgow Outcome Scale still showed significant cognitive impairment in verbal memory and language domains.
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