CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Derivation and validation of a clinical decision rule to identify young children with skull fracture following isolated head trauma.
There is no clear consensus regarding radiologic evaluation of head trauma in young children without traumatic brain injury. We conducted a study to develop and validate a clinical decision rule to identify skull fracture in young children with head trauma and no immediate need for head tomography. ⋯ The clinical decision rule developed in this study identified about 90% of skull fractures among young children with mild head trauma who had no immediate indication for head tomography. Use of the rule would have reduced the number of radiologic evaluations by about 60%.