CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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Multicenter Study
Validation and refinement of a clinical decision rule for the use of computed tomography in children with minor head injury in the emergency department.
There is uncertainty about which children with minor head injury need to undergo computed tomography (CT). We sought to prospectively validate the accuracy and potential for refinement of a previously derived decision rule, Canadian Assessment of Tomography for Childhood Head injury (CATCH), to guide CT use in children with minor head injury. ⋯ Among children presenting to the emergency department with minor head injury, the CATCH2 rule was highly sensitive for identifying those children requiring neurosurgical intervention and those with any brain injury on CT. The CATCH2 rule should be further validated in an implementation study designed to assess its clinical impact.