Clinical Predictors of Abnormality Disclosed by Computed Tomography after Mild Head Trauma

CT scan in minor head injury: a guide for rural doctors

“…Minor head injuries affect a young age group and this finding was seen in previous studies. 1,9,[11][12][13] However, the mean age of patients in the above studies ranged from 32 to 39 as compared to a much earlier peak in our study (16 years old). This is due to the fact that many young, unlicensed and inexperienced teenagers ride on rural roads where most accidents occur.…”

“…These findings are in keeping with previous studies. 1,9,[11][12][17][18] There was no association between sex and CT findings or the need for neurosurgical intervention in this study. MVA was the commonest mechanism of injury, which contributed to 75.5% of the total.…”

“…The number of cases involving other mechanisms of injury such as pedestrian injury, fall from a height, falling objects, assault and others was small and this is similar to the published literature. 1,11,[18][19] Our study found a strong association between the type of injury and the need for neurosurgical intervention. There is no previous study that compared modes of injury and the need of neurosurgical intervention.…”

“…However, there are other indirect studies that investigated the correlation between mode of injury and intracranial injury. 2,11,[19][20][21][22] Forty-four patients (47%) with minor head injury had a GCS score of 15 on admission. Twenty eight percent had a GCS score of 14 and the remaining 26% of 13.…”

Management of Traumatic Brain Injury

“…The frequency of a surgical lesions (i.e., requiring surgical evacuation) in hospital-admitted patients varies between 0.7% and 4.0% in different studies [104,109]. Even if the GCS score is 15, intracranial lesions cannot be completely excluded clinically on head trauma patients who have loss of consciousness or amnesia, regardless of age, mechanism of injury, or clinical findings [53]. This poses the question about the adequate diagnostic work-up and/or the need for in-hospital clinical surveillance of these patients.…”