HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bloch, R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Bloch, R. Topic Collections EBM Clinical prediction guide

A decision rule with 7 clinical criteria identified patients with minor head injury who did not need computed tomography

Design
2 cohort studies, one for derivation and one for validation of the clinical criteria.

Setting
A large, inner city, level 1 trauma centre in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Patients
Consecutive patients with minor head injury (loss of consciousness with normal findings on a brief neurological examination and a score of 15 on the Glasgow Coma Scale) in 2 phases (520 in the derivation set, 909 in the validation set, each with mean age 36 y, 65% men). Inclusion criteria were age 3 years and presentation <24 hours after injury.

Description of prediction guide
Prognostic clinical criteria recorded before CT in the derivation set were age and presence of headache, vomiting, drug or alcohol intoxication, short term antegrade memory deficits, seizure, history of coagulopathy, and physical evidence of trauma above the clavicles. For the validation set, the same criteria, excluding history of coagulopathy, were recorded before CT. Patients were separated into 2 groups: those who had 0 . . . [Full text of this article]

Ralph Bloch, MD

University of Berne Berne, Switzerland