Authors

1Esteban Molano Álvarez, 2Héctor Gómez García, 1Ana Isabel Cabrero Cabrero, 1Clara Cornejo Bauer, 1Mireia Domínguez Caballero, 1María del Ara Murillo Pérez, 1Raquel Vinagre Gaspar, 3Manuela Cuenca Solanas

Position

¹Enfermero/a de la UCI de Trauma y Emergencias del Hospital Doce de Octubre, Madrid.²Enfermero de la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos del Hospital Universitario de Salamanca.³Supervisora del Área Funcional de Urgencias del Hospital Doce de Octubre, Madrid.

Contact address

Hospital Doce de Octubre. UCI de Trauma y Emergencias. Avda. Córdoba, s/n. 28041 MADRID

Contact email: emolano@wanadoo.es

Abstract

The Quality of Life (QL) following a head injury has been recognised in the last decades as an important indicator of healthcare.
The objective of this study was to determine the long-term QL in patients admitted in the ICU with severe head injury.
Material and method: the Spanish version of MOS 36 Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used in conjunction with Katz´s index to survey health status. 78 patients diagnosed with severe head trauma at admission, domiciled in Spain and admitted from 2000 to December 2002, were included in the study.
Results: 56 patients completed the survey, in 82,2% of them Katz´s index was grade A. The domain with the highest score for QL was Social Function (76,6±25,8) and the lowest was Emotional Role (64,9±41,2). All values attained were lower than those obtained in the Spanish general population.
Conclusions: sequelae from sustaining a major head injury limit long-term QL, shown to be inferior to that of the general population. Hence we recommend that further work is carried out using specific measurement instruments for QF in severe head injury.

Keywords:

severe head injury; quality of life; functional assessment; critical carerehabilitation

Versión en Español

Título:

Calidad de vida a largo plazo después de un traumatismo craneoencefálico