• Ikkei Tamada, Takaaki Mori, Nobuaki Inoue, Hirokazu Shido, Marie Aoki, Yukie Nakamura, and Ruri Kamogawa.
• *Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical Center †Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical Center, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan.
• J Craniofac Surg. 2017 Jan 1; 28 (1): 84-87.

BackgroundUltrasonography (US) was recently reported as a reliable modality for diagnosing nasal bone fractures. However, whether US is reliable as a screening tool in the pediatric emergency department (ED) remains unknown. This prospective cohort study had a 2-fold aim: to assess the utility of US in the diagnosis of pediatric nasal bone fracture, and to evaluate the validity of our protocol for managing pediatric nasal bone fractures (Fuchu-Kids algorithm).Patients And MethodsAmong the patients who presented at the ED with facial trauma, those with a suspected nasal bone fracture were enrolled in the study. Patients were treated according to Fuchu-Kids algorithm, and the validity of the protocol using US imaging was evaluated.ResultsAmong 81 patients who were enrolled during the 1-year study period, 63 patients were able to complete the process described in our protocol for further examination. The diagnostic power of the Fuchu-Kids algorithm had a sensitivity of 91.7%, a specificity of 92.3%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 88%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 94.7%. However, when the performance of US was assessed as a single examination, its sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 75%, 92.3%, 85.7%, and 85.7%, respectively.ConclusionUsing our algorithm, the majority of patients with nasal bone fracture were successfully diagnosed and screened out successfully. Repeated US imaging is effective when clinical symptoms persist even if the first US imaging was negative for nasal bone fracture. However, a detailed medical interview and clinical examination are mandatory, regardless of the use of US.

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