Vocational Rehabilitation in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Supporting Return to Work and Daily Life Functioning

Persisting post-concussive symptoms are challenging to treat and may delay return-to-work (RTW). The aims of this study were to describe a multidisciplinary and holistic vocational rehabilitation (VR) program for individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and to explore course and predictors of employment outcome during VR. The VR program was described using the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) framework. Further, a retrospective, cohort study on individuals with mTBI receiving VR was conducted based on clinical records (n = 32; 22% males; mean age 43.2 years; 1.2 years since injury on average). The primary outcome was difference in hours at work per week from pre- to post-VR, and the secondary outcome was change in a three-level RTW-status. Time since injury, age, sex, and loss of consciousness were investigated as predictors of the outcomes. The VR intervention is individually tailored and targets patients' individual needs. Thus, it may combine a variety of methods based on a biopsychosocial theoretical model. During VR, hours at work, 17.0 ± 2.2, p < 0.001, and RTW-status, OR = 14.0, p < 0.001, improved significantly with 97% having returned to work after VR. Shorter length of time since injury and male sex were identified as predictors of a greater gain of working hours. Time since injury was the strongest predictor; double the time was associated with a reduction in effect by 4.2 ± 1.4 h after adjusting for working hours at start of VR. In sum, these results suggest that individuals facing persistent problems following mTBI may still improve employment outcomes and RTW after receiving this multidisciplinary and holistic VR intervention, even years after injury. While results are preliminary and subject to bias due to the lack of a control group, this study warrants further research into employment outcomes and VR following mTBI, including who may benefit the most from treatment

Genomics-Based Identifcation of Microorganisms in Human Ocular Body Fluid

Abstract Advances in genomics have the potential to revolutionize clinical diagnostics. Here, we examine the microbiome of vitreous (intraocular body fluid) from patients who developed endophthalmitis following cataract surgery or intravitreal injection. Endophthalmitis is an inflammation of the intraocular cavity and can lead to a permanent loss of vision. As controls, we included vitreous from endophthalmitis-negative patients, balanced salt solution used during vitrectomy and DNA extraction blanks. We compared two DNA isolation procedures and found that an ultraclean production of reagents appeared to reduce background DNA in these low microbial biomass samples. We created a curated microbial genome database (>5700 genomes) and designed a metagenomics workflow with filtering steps to reduce DNA sequences originating from: (i) human hosts, (ii) ambiguousness/contaminants in public microbial reference genomes and (iii) the environment. Our metagenomic read classification revealed in nearly all cases the same microorganism that was determined in cultivation- and mass spectrometry-based analyses. For some patients, we identified the sequence type of the microorganism and antibiotic resistance genes through analyses of whole genome sequence (WGS) assemblies of isolates and metagenomic assemblies. Together, we conclude that genomics-based analyses of human ocular body fluid specimens can provide actionable information relevant to infectious disease management