31 Head home: a prospective cohort study of a nurse led paediatric head injury clinical decision tool at a district general hospital

Aims/Objectives/BackgroundObjectivesTo assess if application of a nurse-led paediatric head injury clinical decision tool would be safe compared to current practice.Background>700,000 children attend UK hospitals’ each year with a head injury. Research indicates <1% undergo neurosurgical intervention. No published evidence for nurse-led discharge of paediatric head injuries exists.Methods/DesignMethods – All paediatric (<17 years) patients with head injuries presenting to our Emergency department (ED) 1st May to 31st October 2018 were prospectively screened by a nurse using a mandated electronic ‘Head Injury Discharge At Triage’ questionnaire (HIDATq). We determined which patients underwent computed tomography (CT) brain and whether there was a clinically important intracranial injury or re-presentation to ED. The negative predictive value of the screening tool was assessed. We determined what proportion of patients could have been sent home from triage using HIDATq.Results/ConclusionsResults - Of 1739 patients screened; 61 had CTs performed due to head injury (6 abnormal) with a CT rate of 3.5% and 2% re-presentations. Of the entire cohort, 1052 screened negative. 1 CT occurred in this group showing no abnormalities. Of those screened negative: 349/1052 (33%) had ‘no other injuries’ and 543/1052 (52%) had ‘abrasions or lacerations’. HIDATq’s negative predictive value for CT was 99.9% (95% Confidence interval (CI) 99.4–99.9%) and 100% (CI 99.0–100%) for intracranial injury. The positive predictive value of the tool was low. Five patients screened negative and re-presented within 72hrs but did not require CT imaging.Conclusion - A negative HIDATq appears safe in our ED. Potentially 20% (349/1739) of all patients with head injuries presenting to our department could be discharged by nurses at triage with adequate safety netting advice. This increases to 50% (543/1739) if patients with lacerations or abrasions were treated and discharged at triage. A large multi-centre study is required to validate the tool.

Variation in CT use for paediatric head injuries across different types of emergency departments in Australia and New Zealand

ObjectivesCT of the brain (CTB) for paediatric head injury is used less frequently at tertiary paediatric emergency departments (EDs) in Australia and New Zealand than in North America. In preparation for release of a national head injury guideline and given the high variation in CTB use found in North America, we aimed to assess variation in CTB use for paediatric head injury across hospitals types.MethodsMulticentre retrospective review of presentations to tertiary, urban/suburban and regional/rural EDs in Australia and New Zealand in 2016. Children aged <16 years, with a primary ED diagnosis of head injury were included and data extracted from 100 eligible cases per site. Primary outcome was CTB use adjusted for severity (Glasgow Coma Scale) with 95% CIs; secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay and admission rate.ResultsThere were 3072 head injury presentations at 31 EDs: 9 tertiary (n=900), 11 urban/suburban (n=1072) and 11 regional/rural EDs (n=1100). The proportion of children with Glasgow Coma Score ≤13 was 1.3% in each type of hospital. Among all presentations, CTB was performed for 8.2% (95% CI 6.4 to 10.0) in tertiary hospitals, 6.6% (95% CI 5.1 to 8.1) in urban/suburban hospitals and 6.1% (95% CI 4.7 to 7.5) in regional/rural. Intragroup variation of CTB use ranged from 0% to 14%. The regional/rural hospitals admitted fewer patients (14.6%, 95% CI 12.6% to 16.9%, p<0.001) than tertiary and urban/suburban hospitals (28.1%, 95% CI 25.2% to 31.2%; 27.3%, 95% CI 24.7% to 30.1%).ConclusionsIn Australia and New Zealand, there was no difference in CTB use for paediatric patients with head injuries across tertiary, urban/suburban and regional/rural EDs with similar intragroup variation. This information can inform a binational head injury guideline.

Head home: a prospective cohort study of a nurse-led paediatric head injury clinical decision tool at a district general hospital

ObjectivesTo assess if a nurse-led application of a paediatric head injury clinical decision tool would be safe compared with current practice.MethodsAll paediatric (<17 years) patients with head injuries presenting to Frimley Park Emergency Department (ED), England from 1 May to 31 October 2018 were prospectively screened by a nurse using a mandated electronic 'Head Injury Discharge At Triage' questionnaire (HIDATq). We determined which patients underwent CT of brain and whether there was a clinically important intracranial injury or re-presentation to the ED. The negative predictive value of the screening tool was assessed. We determined what proportion of patients could have been sent home from triage using this tool.ResultsOf the 1739 patients screened, 61 had CTs performed due to head injury (six abnormal) with a CT rate of 3.5% and 2% re-presentations. Of the entire cohort, 1052 screened negative. 1 CT occurred in this group showing no abnormalities. Of those screened negative, 349 (33%)/1052 had ‘no other injuries’ and 543 (52%)/1052 had ‘abrasions or lacerations’. HIDATq's negative predictive value for CT was 99.9% (95% CI 99.4% to 99.9%) and 100% (95% CI 99.0% to 100%) for intracranial injury. The positive predictive value of the tool was low. Five patients screened negative and re-presented within 72 hours but did not require CT imaging.ConclusionA negative HIDATq appears safe in our ED. Potentially 20% (349/1739) of all patients with head injuries presenting to our department could be discharged by nurses at triage with adequate safety netting advice. This increases to 50% (543/1739), if patients with lacerations or abrasions were given advice and discharged at triage. A large multicentre study is required to validate the tool.

Clinical spectrum of paediatric head injury

Introduction: Traumatic Brain injury is considered as a major health problem which causes frequent deaths and disabilities in paediatric population with special concern to tribal regions of developing countries like India where etiology of traumatic brain injury in the paediatric population fall from height dominant over the road traffic accident as a major. Aim and objective: The aim is to analyse the epidemiology, mechanism, clinical presentation, severity and outcome of paediatric head injury in the tribal region of northern India that could help to make preventive policies to improve their care. Material methods: It is a prospective observational study of 345 children of up to 18 years of age admitted under Department of Neurosurgery from October 2017 to April 2019. Results: The study population comprised of 345 paediatric patients. Mean age was 9.25 years.36.81% patients were in 1-6-year age group and male to female ratio was 2.45. The most common cause for trauma was fall from height in 179(52%) cases followed by RTA in 141(41%) cases. The most common radiological finding was depressed skull fractures in 97(50%) cases. There was 35% mortality in severe head injury patients. Conclusion: This study through some light on the different scenario of head injury in Tribal regions of Developing country and will help to formulate effective strategies for prevention and better care of the patients.

Clinical spectrum of paediatric head injury. A prospective study from tribal region

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury is considered as a major health problem which causes frequent deaths and disabilities in the paediatric population with special concern to tribal regions of developing countries like India where aetiology of traumatic brain injury in the paediatric population fall from height dominant over the road traffic accident as a major. Aim & Objective: The aim is to analyse the epidemiology, mechanism, clinical presentation, severity and outcome of paediatric head injury in the tribal region of northern India that could help to make preventive policies to improve their care. Material Methods: It is a prospective observational study of 345 children of up to 18 years of age admitted under Department of Neurosurgery from October 2017 to April 2019. Results: The study population comprised of 345 paediatric patients. Mean age was 9.25 years.36.81% patients were in 1-6-year age group and male to female ratio was 2.45. The most common cause for trauma was fall from height in 179(52%) cases followed by RTA in 141(41%) cases. The most common radiological finding was depressed skull fractures in 97(50%) cases. There was 35% mortality in severe head injury patients. Conclusion: This study through some light on the different scenario of head injury in Tribal regions of Developing country and will help to formulate effective strategies for prevention and better care of the patients.