Objective To study the influence of occupational therapy in improving the scores of Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) and Modified Barthel Index (MBI) in patients with traumatic brain injury. Methods Fifty-five patients with traumatic brain injury accompanied by limb dysfunction, who were treated in hospital recently, were successively recruited and randomly divided into observation group (n=28, OT group) and control group (n=27). Since the conditions became stable, the patients in both groups were given the basic rehabilitative therapy. Besides, those in the observation group were treated with functional OT, and the OT schemes were selected separately according to the conditions of individual patients; 1-2 times a day, 20-30 min for each time, and 20-30 times as a course for a total of 2 courses. All the subjects in both groups were evaluated with MBI and FMA before and after therapy. Results Before therapy, the distributions of item scores and the total score of MBI were close between the two groups (P all > 0.05). Most item scores and the total score of MBI after therapy were all obviously better than those before therapy in both groups, and partial item scores and the total score of MBI after therapy in the OT group were also better than those in the control group (P all < 0.01~0.05). Before therapy, the distributions of item scores and the total score of FMA were close between the two groups (P all > 0.05). All the item scores and the total score of FMA after therapy were all obviously better than those before therapy in both groups, and item scores for upper limbs and the total score of FMA in the OT group were also better than those in the control group in the same period (P all < 0.01~0.05).Conclusion Functional OT can obviously improve the FMA scores for the upper limbs and MBI in patients with traumatic brain injury.