Highlights
- •Rehabilitation reduce disability and improve muscle strength.
- •Time of injury, age and muscle strength improvement influence return to work/study.
- •Severity of the injury, type of work and dominant side involvement does not influence return to work/ study.
- •High levels of satisfaction were achieved with an interdisciplinary approach patient-centered.
Abstract
Background
An important focus of rehabilitation is thereturn to the meningful occupations which
may include work and school activities.
Purpose
The aim of this study is to investigate predictive factors for return to work/study
in traumatic brachial plexus injury patients undergoing rehabilitation and to investigate
the level of satisfaction with treatment.
Study Design
Retrospective observational study with at least 1 year of follow-up.
Methods
One hundred and one individuals with traumatic brachial plexus injury enrolled in
this study. Primary outcomes were return to work/study and satisfaction with treatment.
A secondary outcome was the self-perception of what influenced return to work. Sociodemographic
and related to injury data, rehabilitation interventions, muscle strength, and disability
were analyzed as predictors. Associations were investigated using univariable and
discriminant analysis and considered a level of significance of P < .05.
Results
Return to work/study occurred in 55% of the patients who participated in this study.
Muscle strength discerned those who returned to work. Time interval between trauma
and surgery and age were lower in those who returned to work.
Thirty-one patients answered the question regarding self-perception of what influenced
return to work. They indicated “necessity”, “rehabilitation”, “my desire” and “not become depressed”. Satisfaction was graded between 8.9 and 9.5 in 95% of the cases.
Conclusions
Return to work/study was related to muscle strength improvement and those who returned
were younger and had less time elapsed from trauma. Individual factors and rehabilitation
were pointed out as helpful in aiding return to work. Satisfaction with treatment
was high. These findings can help to optimize goals in the rehabilitation environment.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 28, 2021
Accepted:
June 23,
2021
Received in revised form:
January 19,
2021
Received:
June 7,
2020
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
Funding: The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Identification
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