International journal of rehabilitation research. Internationale Zeitschrift für Rehabilitationsforschung. Revue internationale de recherches de réadaptation
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Comparative Study
Can the back-to-work rate of patients with long-term non-malignant pain be predicted?
The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcome of a structured multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme regarding the return-to-work rate. Sixty-seven patients were enrolled in an 8-week, structured rehabilitation programme. The prediction of the return-to-work rate was evaluated before entering the programme. ⋯ This study has shown that 63% of the patients with long-term non-malignant pain were back to work or in work-related activities 1 year after completing the rehabilitation programme. The IDEA made by the rehabilitation team was crucial in predicting the return-to-work rate in this patient group. The MSPQ and DRI questionnaires, the patients' own prediction, pain intensity, age and time out of work had a low value for predicting the return-to-work rate following a structured multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of traumatic spinal cord-injured patients. The hospital records of 539 patients (416 men, 123 women) with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) admitted to four hospitals that were major referral centers for trauma in the south-eastern region of Turkey from 1990 to 1999 were reviewed retrospectively. The patients with SCI were investigated for two periods; the first period covered patients admitted between 1990 and 1994 during which time an influx of people from rural to urban areas occurred and firearm injuries were common. ⋯ In the first period, incomplete paraplegia was encountered more often than in the second period (P<0.001). In conclusion, in our series, while the leading cause of SCI for the two time periods was road traffic accidents, firearm injuries for the first period and falls for the second period were second-most frequent causes of SCI. In addition, the present study suggests that demographic and epidemiological factors may affect the characteristics of SCI in a region-based population even in a 10-year period of time.