Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of intensive rehabilitation to support recovery of neurological function after brain tumor surgery and assess long-term satisfaction. Methods This retrospective study included patients with neurological impairment after brain tumor surgery who underwent intensive rehabilitation therapy between December 2013 and May 2017. To assess effectiveness of rehabilitation, functional outcomes (motor, cognition, and activities of daily living [ADL]) were compared between brain tumor group and a control group enrolling stroke patients who received equivalent rehabilitation during the study period. Long-term satisfaction with rehabilitation was evaluated by surveying family caregivers. Results This study included 21 patients with benign brain tumor, 14 with malignant brain tumor, and 108 with stroke. Significant and similar improvement in motor, cognition, and ADL function were noted in both the brain tumor group and the stroke group. Malignancy status did not influence the extent of functional improvement. According to medical records and surveys, 9 (69.2%) patients with malignant tumor and 2 (11.8%) with benign tumor had expired by the time of the survey. Most family caregivers confirmed that rehabilitation was effective for functional improvement (>60%), expressing overall satisfaction and stating they would recommend such therapy to patients with similar conditions (approximately 70%). Conclusion Intensive rehabilitation may help promote functional improvement following brain tumor surgery regardless of malignancy compared with stroke patients. Family caregivers expressed overall satisfaction with rehabilitation at long-term follow-up. These findings support the provision of intensive rehabilitation therapy for neurologic function recovery following brain tumor surgery.

Objective To investigate the usefulness of goal attainment scaling (GAS) in intensive stroke rehabilitation during the subacute stage.Methods Medical records of subacute post-stroke patients who had undergone intensive rehabilitation under hospitalization, before and after the application of GAS, were collected. GAS was conducted at the initial evaluation of each patient. Specific goals were suggested by physical and occupational therapists and were determined by the responsible physiatrist. A 5-point scale was used for the GAS score after 4 weeks of rehabilitation according to the preset criteria of each goal. To evaluate the influence of GAS in rehabilitation practice, functional improvements were compared between two patient groups before (n=121) and after (n=141) GAS. To assess progress in GAS practice, the standard GAS score was calculated, and the changes were observed over a 3-year period. The standard GAS score converged to 50 points when the goal was achieved. The therapists who used GAS also completed a survey regarding its usefulness.Results There were no statistical differences in the motor and cognitive outcomes of the patient groups before and after applying GAS scoring. Successive yearly changes in the standard GAS scores showed progressive convergence to 50 points, signaling that the patient’s goal-setting abilities improved. According to the survey, most therapists felt that GAS enhanced the quality of therapies (84.6%).Conclusion GAS improved goal-setting for the rehabilitation of subacute post-stroke patients and might have a positive effect on rehabilitation.

ObjectiveTo suggest rotation angles of fluoroscopy that can bypass the carotid sheath according to vertebral levels for cervical transforaminal epidural steroid injection (TFESI).MethodsPatients who underwent cervical spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from January 2009 to October 2017 were analyzed. In axial sections of cervical spine MRI, three angles to the vertical line (α, angle not to insult carotid sheath; β, angle for the conventional TFESI; γ, angle not to penetrate carotid artery) were measured.ResultsAlpha (α) angles tended to increase for upper cervical levels (53.3° in C6-7, 65.2° in C5-6, 75.3° in C4-5, 82.3° in C3-4). Beta (β) angles for conventional TFESI showed a constant value of 45° to 47° (47.5° in C6-7, 47.4° in C5-6, 45.7° in C4-5, 45.0° in C3-4). Gamma (γ) angles increased at higher cervical levels as did α angles (25.2° in C6-7, 33.6° in C5-6, 43.0° in C4-5, 56.2° in C3-4).ConclusionThe risk of causing injury by penetrating major vessels in the carotid sheath tends to increase at upper cervical levels. Therefore, prior to cervical TFESI, measuring the angle is necessary to avoid carotid vessels in the axial section of CT or MRI, thus contributing to a safer procedure.