Citation

Muñoz-Sánchez MA, Murillo-Cabezas F, Cayuela A, Flores-Cordero JM, Rincón-Ferrari MD, Amaya-Villar R, Fornelino A. Childs Nerv. Syst. 2005; 21(2): 128-132.

Affiliation

Department of Critical Care and Emergency, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Avda. Manuel Siurot s/n, 41013, Sevilla, Spain. angeles.munoz.sspa@juntadeandalucia.es

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00381-004-1036-x

PMID

15338178

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine whether the age of patients with mild head injury and skull fracture influences the level of risk for acute intracranial injuries. METHOD: A study was conducted of 156 patients with skull fracture, 60 children (aged <14 years) and 96 adults, detected among 5,097 consecutive patients with mild head injury (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] score of 15-14 points) arriving at the Emergency Department of a Level I University Hospital Trauma Center during 1998. Acute intracranial injuries were defined as traumatic brain injuries identified by cranial computed tomography scan, excluding pneumocephalus. RESULTS: Compared with the children, this risk of intracranial injury was 13 times greater in the adults aged 14-54 years and 16 times greater in the over-54-year-olds. Besides age over 14 years (p<0.0001), compound skull fracture (p<0.001), and a GCS score of 14 (p<0.001) were factors significantly associated with intracranial injury in the logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Skull fracture in mild head injury implies a greater risk of intracranial injury in adults than in children.

Language: en