The effect of patient observation on cranial computed tomography rates in children with minor head trauma
Academic Emergency Medicine Apr 01, 2020
Singh S, Hearps SJC, Borland ML, et al. - Researchers examined if and how planned observation affect the CT use for each Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) traumatic brain injury (TBI) risk group among children with minor head trauma. A prospective observational study at 10 emergency departments (EDs) in Australia and New Zealand, involving 18,471 children < 18 years old, presenting within 24 hours of blunt head trauma, with Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 14 to 15, was assessed in this secondary analysis. Those with planned observation and no immediate plan for cranial CT (planned observation cohort) were compared the comparison cohort that comprised the rest of the patients who were either not observed or for whom a decision to obtain a cranial CT was made immediately after ED assessment. In the total cohort, the cranial CT rate was 8.6%; clinically important TBI (ciTBI) was reported in 0.8%. The planned observation group vs no planned observation group comprised 4,945 (27%) and 13,526 (73%) children, respectively. Observations revealed correlation of planned observation with decreased cranial CT use even in a setting with low overall cranial CT rates in children with minor head trauma. Safe implementation of this strategy is possible in selected patients in the PECARN intermediate‐ and higher‐risk groups for ciTBI. .
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