JAMA pediatrics
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Isolated loss of consciousness in children with minor blunt head trauma.
A history of loss of consciousness (LOC) is frequently a driving factor for computed tomography use in the emergency department evaluation of children with blunt head trauma. Computed tomography carries a nonnegligible risk for lethal radiation-induced malignancy. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) derived 2 age-specific prediction rules with 6 variables for clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI), which included LOC as one of the risk factors. ⋯ Children with minor blunt head trauma presenting to the emergency department with isolated LOC are at very low risk for ciTBI and do not routinely require computed tomographic evaluation.