COVID-19 and hospital restrictions: physical disconnection and digital re-connection in disorders of consciousness.
Brain Inj
; 35(10): 1134-1142, 2021 08 24.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1397992
ABSTRACT
Purpose:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced hospitals to adopt tighter restrictions, the most impacting is no access to visitors. Disorder of consciousness (DOC) due to severe acquired brain injury is a condition needing neurorehabilitation and the role of relatives is essential, hence besides physical "disconnection" digital "re-connection" is crucial. We aimed to assess whether digital communication benefits in patients with DOC, considering the sensorial and emotional deprivation due to the COVID-19 emergency lock-down.Methods:
For eleven consecutive patients with DOC admitted to our Intensive Neurorehabilitation Care (mean age 45; females 9), two observers registered neurobehavioral changes during a video-calls with their relatives. Heart-rate variability was measured before and during the calls. The video-call was performed by using two displays of different sizes tablet (T-video-call) and large screen (LS-Video-call).Results:
The video-calls impacted on the patients' vigilance and in the relationship with relatives. Moreover, positively impacted on their relatives. The current results showed significant greater impact on patients during the LS-video-call than when they are exposed to T-video-call.Conclusions:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, besides the physical disconnection to stop the contagion spread, a "digital re-connection" is needed for all and especially for fragile population groups as patients with DOC.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Consciousness
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Brain Inj
Journal subject:
Brain
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
02699052.2021.1972335
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