• Thomas E Akie, Malkeet Gupta, Robert M Rodriguez, Gregory W Hendey, Jake L Wilson, Alexandra K Quinones, and William R Mower.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Ronald Reagan - University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA. Electronic address: thomas.akie@umassmemorial.org.
• Ann Emerg Med. 2023 Mar 1; 81 (3): 334342334-342.

Study ObjectiveWe evaluated the emergency department (ED) providers' ability to detect skull fractures in pediatric patients presenting with blunt head trauma.MethodsThis was a secondary analysis of the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) Head computed tomography (CT) validation study. Demographics and clinical characteristics were analyzed for pediatric patients. Radiologist interpretations of head CT imaging were abstracted and cataloged. Detection of skull fractures was evaluated through provider response to specific clinical decision instrument criteria (NEXUS or Canadian head CT rules) at the time of initial patient evaluation. The presence of skull fracture was determined by formal radiologist interpretation of CT imaging.ResultsBetween April 2006, and December 2015, 1,018 pediatric patients were enrolled. One hundred twenty-eight (12.5%) children had a notable injury reported on CT head. Skull fracture was present in most (66.4%) children with intracranial injuries. The sensitivity and specificity of provider physical examination to detect skull fractures was 18.5% (95% confidence interval 10.5% to 28.7%) and 96.6% (95.3% to 97.7%), respectively. The most common injuries associated with skull fractures were subarachnoid hemorrhage (27%) and subdural hematoma (22.3%).ConclusionSkull fracture is common in children with intracranial injury after blunt head trauma. Despite this, providers were found to have poor sensitivity for skull fractures in this population, and these injuries may be missed on initial emergency department assessment.Copyright © 2022 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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