Medical rehabilitation is generally interpreted as a part of medicine that becomes relevant when prevention has failed or when the primary treatment of a disease or injury has resulted in incomplete recovery.

In many cases rehabilitation interventions start when the primary physician has nothing more to offer to the patient and often the patient has to be transferred to another ward or hospital to make the first steps in a long process of rehabilitation. This model of a sharp distinction between primary care and rehabilitation is outdated and caries may risks and disadvantages.

Patients with acute injuries, such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, hand trauma, multiple bone fractures and myocardial infarcts nowadays receive rehabilitation interventions before surgery, during chemotherapy or radiotherapy and immediately after injury or acute disease onset. So do patients with conditions such as stroke, amputation, organ transplantation, burn wounds and cancer treatment.

All these activities can be included in acute medical rehabilitation which is aiming at prevention of further physical and psychological deterioration, at improving functioning, treatment of common complications such as joint contractures or pressure sores, at providing information on future perspectives and on managing discharge to home or to further in- or outpatient facilities. This handbook offers practical and concise information for physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals that are involved in the medical care for those patients that will need long-term rehabilitation. The focus is on the first days and weeks after surgery, trauma or onset of disease.