Voor professionals

Samenvatting (Engels)

Prolonged disorders of consciousness (PDOC) are a group of rare and complex conditions that may occur after acquired brain injury. The care for patients with PDOC is challenging. For the best outcome, intensive neurorehabilitation is recommended. Since 2019 intensive neurorehabilitation is available for patients with PDOC of all ages in the Netherlands in an integrated chain of care of medical rehabilitation and skilled nursing care.

In this article, we present the research protocol of the DOCTOR study, which aims to provide insight into the recovery patterns and prognostic factors of multiple outcomes of patients with PDOC receiving intensive neurorehabilitation. The TOPDOC-study is an add-on study on ethical issues such as quality of life, quality of dying, and end-of-life decisions in the same population of patients with PDOC. Together, these outcomes can further optimize the existing intensive neuro rehabilitation and PDOC care chain for patients, their families and healthcare professionals.

Keywords: Disorders of consciousness, Brain injury, Outcomes, Neurorehabilitation, End-of-life decisions.