Time to follow commands remains the most useful injury severity variable for predicting WeeFIM® scores 1 year after paediatric TBI.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between injury severity variables, particularly time to follow commands (TFC) and long-term functional outcomes in paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS AND PROCEDURE: Participants included 40 children with moderate-to-severe TBI discharged from inpatient rehabilitation. Measures of severity were initial Glasgow Coma Scale score, TFC, duration of Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) and total duration of impaired consciousness (TFC + PTA). Functional outcome was measured by age-corrected Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM®) scores at 1-year after discharge. RESULTS: Correlations indicated that injury severity variables (TFC, PTA and TFC + PTA) were all associated with functional outcome. Regression analyses revealed that TFC and TFC + PTA similarly accounted for 49% or 47% of the variance, respectively, in total WeeFIM® score. Thirty-seven of 40 children had good outcome; of the three children with TFC >26 days, two had poor outcome. CONCLUSION: PTA and TFC + PTA do not provide a benefit over TFC alone for prediction of long-term outcome and TFC is identified earlier in the recovery course. TFC remains an important predictor of functional outcome 1-year after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation after paediatric TBI.