EBQ:PECARN Pediatric Head CT Rule

incomplete Journal Club Article

Kuppermann N. et al. "Identification of children at very low risk of clinically-important brain injuries after head trauma: a prospective cohort study.". The Lancet. 2009. 374(9696):1160-1170.
PubMed Full text

The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9696, Pages 1160 - 1170, 3 October 2009 <Previous Article|Next Article>

CME

{Journal club article: Regarding pediatric head trauma patients, which of the following were predictors of “very low risk for clinically significant injury in children less than 2 years of age”? |type="[]"} +normal mental status +no scalp hematoma except frontal +no loss of consciousness or loss of consciousness < 5 seconds +non-severe injury mechanism +no palpable skull fracture ||All of the above. The child should have been acting normally according to the parents. If all were present, the negative predictive value was 100% (95%CI 99.7-100%). The prediction rule for children aged 2 years and older included normal mental status, no loss of consciousness, no vomiting, non-severe injury mechanism, no signs of basilar skull fracture, and no severe headache. This rule for those greater than 2 eyars of age had a negative predictive value of 99.95% (95% CI 99.81-99.99%). Neither rule missed neurosurgery in the validation populations.