Rehabilitation after Traumatic Brain Injuries- The Challenge of the Elderly

Copyright: © 2013 Røe C. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a worldwide public health problem, with high mortality rates and long-term loss of function for the survivors. The incidence of TBI is related to environmental, socio-cultural and individual factors that vary over time. International epidemiological studies have reported changes during the last decades with decreasing incidence, hospitalization, and mortality from severe TBI except for the elderly. The TBI survivors in general display functional impairments and physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities causing restriction in activities and participation. Dependency in daily activities is associated to poor quality of life and recognized to be very costly for the society