Impact of rehabilitation in the neurointensive care unit on long‐term survival in patients with traumatic brain injury

Neurorehabilitation following intensive care for traumatic brain injury is important to help the patients regain function. However, it is uncertain whether survival is improved by the initiation of interdisciplinary rehabilitation already during neurointensive care, consisting of mobilization and training activities of daily living as well as swallowing. This study compared long-term survival in a retrospective cohort of patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury and found that those receiving early rehabilitation had a higher long-term survival, which persisted for up to 13 years but was mainly due to improved survival during the first 3 months. Whether this is due to physiological effects or an increased enthusiasm among healthcare providers to continue active treatment is unknown and should be further explored.