The impact of age on traumatic brain injury.

Older individuals with TBI differ from younger adults with TBI in several ways, including their incidence rates, etiology of injury, nature of complications, lengths of hospitalization, functional outcomes, and mortality. Despite the greater likelihood of poorer functional outcomes, older adults with TBI often achieve good functional outcomes and can live in community settings after receiving appropriate rehabilitation services, although at higher costs and longer hospitalizations than younger individuals. The future of rehabilitation care for elderly patients after TBI is uncertain due to financial limitations associated with the implementation of the PPS payment system by CMS. Little is known regarding the long-term impact of TBI on individuals as they age, but this is an important issue as the population ages.