Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The impact of head trauma leads to generation of forces that cause both the intracranial injuries and loss of consciousness. Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) and cranial CT scan are widely used to gauge the severity of head injury. Milder cranial impacts insufficient to cause intracranial injuries generally cause no or minimal loss of consciousness. Nevertheless, cases with contradictory findings are also seen. This study was undertaken to find out the association among the three above-stated variables. A knowledge of such an association can enable the attending clinician in prognosticating a cranial injury and selecting out those patients with mild head injuries who deserve closer observation. While a significant positive association was found between duration of unconsciousness and GCS, no signifficant association of either of these variables with CT scan findings was noted.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1. Rosenthal BW , Bergman I. . Intracranial injuries after moderate head trauma in children. J Pediatr. 1989;115:346-350.

2. Zimmerman RA , Bilanuik LT . Pediatric head trauma. PediatrNeuroradiol. 1994;4:349-366.

3. Rivara F , Tanaguchi D , Parish RA , et al. Poor prediction of positive computed tomographic scans by clinical criteria in symptomatic pediatric head trauma. Pediatrics. 1987;80:579-584.

4. Harad FI , Kerstein MD . Inadequacy of bedside clinical indicators in identifying significant intracranial injury in trauma patients. J Trauma. 1992;32:359-363.

5. Shackford SR , Wald SL , Ross SE , et al. The clinical utility of computed tomographic scanning and neurologic examination in the management of patients with minor head injuries. J Trauma. 1992;33:385-394.

6. Alvarez M , NavaJM , Rue M , et al. Mortality prediction in head trauma patients: performance of Glasgow coma score and general severity systems. Crit Care Med. 1998;26:142-148.

7. Klonoff H , Clark C . Head injuries in children: a prospective five-year follow-up. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatr. 1977;40:1211-1219.

8. Dietrich AM , Bowman MJ , Ginn-Pease ME , et al. Pediatric head injuries: can clinical factors reliably predict an abnormality on computed tomography? Ann Emerg Med. 1993;22:1535-1540.

9. Davis RL , Mullen N , Makela M , et al. Cranial computed tomography scans in children after minimal head injury with loss of consciousness. Ann Emerg Med. 1994;24:640-645.

10.

10. Stein SC , Ross SE . Mild head injury: a plea for routine early CT scanning. J Trauma. 1992;33:11-13.

Association Among Duration of Unconsciousness,Glasgow Coma Scale,and Cranial Computed Tomography Abnormalities in Head-Injured Children

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References