TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - The epidemiology of outpatient visits for minor head injury 2005-2009
JO  - Neurosurgery
A1  - Mannix, Rebekah
A1  - O'Brien, Michael J.
A1  - Meehan, William P.
SP  - 129
EP  - 34; discussion 134
VL  - 73
IS  - 1
N2  - BACKGROUND:: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called for studies detailing the prevalence and burden of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the outpatient clinical setting. OBJECTIVE:: To describe the prevalence of outpatient visits for minor head injury and compare the number of outpatient visits for minor head injury with the number of Emergency Department (ED) visits. METHODS:: This is a cross-sectional study of outpatient visits for minor head injuries from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS). We examined outpatient visits for minor head injury between 2005 and 2009 and compared them to visits in the ED for the same diagnoses using simple survey weighted descriptive statistics. RESULTS:: In the five-year study period, there were 4,146,777 outpatient visits for minor head injury and 6,077,147 ED visits for minor head injury. In the outpatient setting, 14% of office-based visits and 21% of hospital-based visits referred patients for advanced imaging, while 63% of minor head injury patients in the ED underwent imaging. A return visit was arranged for 54% of minor head injury patients in office-based practices and 29% of patients in hospital-based clinics, while 67% of minor head injury patients were given instructions to follow-up after an ED visit. CONCLUSION:: More than 800,000 outpatient visits for minor head injury occur each year. The diagnostics and management associated with these visits are different than those seen in the ED setting.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0148-396X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1227/01.neu.0000429846.14579.41
ID  - ref1
ER  -