Disorders of brain cognitive functions
It is a common problem that occurs in patients with neurological diseases and postoperatively in orthopaedic diseases, is the reduction of brain cognitive functions.
Patients who have suffered a stroke, head injuries and other neurological disorders have difficulty concentrating on a subject, planning activities and carrying them out, remembering important information, and understanding the space around them.
Similar problems can occur postoperatively in orthopaedic surgery, especially in people over 65 years of age, with comorbidities, which make it difficult to recover quickly and return to daily life.
At Efexia, special care is taken to address cognitive problems and their treatment is a priority.
Each patient admitted to the Rehabilitation Centre is assessed for cognitive ability using specific assessment scales.
Initially, a general assessment is done and when there is a problem in a cognitive function, a detailed assessment is done (e.g., a general assessment reveals memory impairment, so a detailed assessment is done to determine whether it concerns recent or past memory, verbal or non-verbal memory) in order to formulate an appropriate treatment and rehabilitation program in a targeted manner.
Each assessment used for diagnosis is weighted to the Greek population and is proportional to the age and educational level of the patient.
Treatment is individualized for each patient and includes printed materials and treatment programs on a special platform for cognitive rehabilitation.
A typical example is a 60 year old patient of ours, who participated in a rehabilitation program after a right hemisphere stroke. After the evaluation it was found that he had difficulty in his ability to concentrate, plan and schedule his movements, as well as to perceive space correctly.
The cognitive rehabilitation program that was designed was organized on a weekly basis and was based on activities with construction , image processing, coding and decoding letters in printed material, followed by a rehabilitation program with planning and prediction exercises of his reactions interactively on the computer. The re-evaluation, showed spectacular improvement in skills deficits. He was able to understand complex problems by relying on his own strengths. His mood also improved and the benefits were reflected in his physiotherapy programme as he was able to concentrate, understand movement, position in space and communicate more effectively with his therapists and loved ones.
At Euxia, our goal is to help the patient regain control of their life.
