The minor head injury.

The minor head injury.

CURRENT TOPIC Minor head injury

Head injury is one of the more common reasons for children to attend for urgent medical care, whether to accident and emergency departments or their general practitioner. Often these attendances are accompanied by a high degree of anxiety, both by the parents or guardians with the child and the doctors and nurses providing medical care. In the UK most of these children will receive their initia...

Pediatric minor closed head injury.

Many studies have found conflicting evidence over the use of clinical indicators to predict intracranial injury in pediatric mild head injury. Although altered mental status, loss of consciousness, and abnormal neurologic examination have all been found to be more prevalent among head-injured children, studies have observed inconsistent results over their specificity and predictive value. Child...

Minor head injury in the pediatric patient.

Minor head injury is a common occurrence in children of all ages; however, controversy exists regarding the management of these children. Reports of neurologically intact children with intracranial injuries have caused many to recommend cautious management, while the infrequency of serious intracranial injuries after minor head trauma have prompted others to be less conservative. Based on recen...

Warfarin and the apparent minor head injury.

Two cases of patients on warfarin who developed intracranial haematoma after an apparently minor head injury are described. There is a 10-fold increase in the likelihood of developing an intracranial haematoma in these patients. Recommendations are made regarding the management of this type of patient seen in the accident and emergency department.