Central nervous system rehabilitation

The restoration of nervous system function after damage is called neurorehabilitation; it involves the recovery of the nervous system and also of other organ systems, above all the musculoskeletal system. Neurorehabilitation is a complex medical discipline that brings together a number of medical specialties, such as physiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, intensive care medicine and many others, including the allied health professions, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing care and robotics, as well as the non-healthcare environment: family, work and social surroundings.

The damage to the central and peripheral nervous system addressed by neurorehabilitation can differ in its causes, consequences and pathogenesis: the underlying disease may be vascular, metabolic, traumatic, genetic or neurodegenerative in nature. A person's return to everyday activities after nervous system dysfunction requires complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and this is precisely why the separate specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation exists: to coordinate medical diagnostic procedures, pharmacotherapy and physical medicine. The diseases that can affect the central and also the peripheral nervous system have very different causes, and they leave the nervous system – and everything it controls – unable to function.

Neurorehabilitation after brain and spinal cord injuries, after a cerebrovascular accident (stroke), for autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system, after infectious diseases of the central nervous system and for neurodegenerative diseases is gaining in importance, especially because medical knowledge, medical technology (neurorobotics) and medicines are constantly advancing.