American College of Surgeons Best Practice Guidelines on Management of Traumatic Brain Injury: Executive Summary of Early Rehabilitation Recommendations.

Abstract

This executive summary provides a synopsis of the recommendations within the de novo early rehabilitation chapter of the updated 2024 American College of Surgeons (ACS) Trauma Quality Improvement Program's Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Best Practice Guideline (BPG) Recommendations. These recommendations were developed through review of the best available evidence and expert consensus. The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine endorsed the final TBI BPG recommendations. This endorsement, a byproduct of the ongoing partnership between ACS and American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine reflects ACS' validation of the importance of interdisciplinary rehabilitation in acute management of patients with traumatic injuries, including TBI. The results include, for the first time, specific recommendations for rehabilitation management of TBI. These recommendations focus on integration of early rehabilitation after moderate to severe TBI, consistent inclusion of rehabilitation physicians and specialists within the primary trauma team and the importance of postacute specialized rehabilitation across the course of recovery from TBI of all severities. The primary objective in developing clear TBI BPGs for acute care rehabilitation is to facilitate increased awareness and implementation of early rehabilitation services within trauma centers that serve survivors of TBI.