Proceedings of the 25th BCTRIMS Annual Meeting

Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, demyelinating disease of central nervous system associated with neurodegeneration. It’s a potential disabling disease which may impact on function and quality of life.

Objective: To describe the access to rehabilitation services among progressive MS patients   in a hospital of northeast Brazil.

Methods: From 42 patients with progressive MS regularly followed between the years of 2020 to 2024, we included 32 patients from which rehabilitation information was available. Clinical and epidemiological data was extracted from the BRANDO platform (Braziliam National Database for Multiple Sclerosis). Data regarding access to multidisciplinary rehabilitation was collected through a phone call survey as an institutional initiative after the inclusion of a physiatrist doctor in our team.

Results: From 32 patients with PMS diagnosis, 22 (68,7%) were female and median age was 49 years (range 23-76). Median EDSS was  6,0 (range 3,0-9,0) and 9 (28%) patients were reported unemployed due to MS.16 (50%) use walking aids: walkers (10), canes (4), crutches (2), 10 (31%) use wheelchair and 6 (18%) don’t need assistive devices for ambulation d 30 (94%)  patients did some type of rehabilitation treatment during the course of the disease and 2 (6%) never had access to rehabilitation therapy. Among patients under rehabilitation, 17 (57%) had mean time of uninterrupted treatment of 60 months (range 1-120) and 13 (43%) were not enrolled in rehabilitation program, with a mean time  for discontinuation of therapies after 30 months (range of 1-60).

Conclusion: Rehabilitation is essential for treatment and maintenance of functionality among MS patients with disability. This study demonstrates good percentage of progressive MS patients who had access to rehabilitation programs, however with premature discontinuation even among patients with some sort of assistive device for mobility, showing the need of rehabilitation services for our patients.