Investigating head injury (summary)

Changed by Henry Knipe, 31 Oct 2017

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Investigating head injury is frequently required because head injury is common: in the US there are 1.3 million traumatic brain injuries per year ¹. Causes include falls (children and the elderly), motor vehicle accidents (adults) ¹, or direct trauma from an object, assault or inflicted injuries (paediatric patients).

Reference article

This is a summary article; ~~we do not have a~~read more in~~-depth reference~~ our article on traumatic brain injury.

Summary

questions
- what was the mechanism of injury?
- what was the GCS and what is it now?
- has the patient been unconscious?
- is the patient protecting their airway?
- is the patient safe to leave their current environment?
investigations
- CT head
  - most useful investigation
  - non-contrast examination from vertex to palate
  - usually performed as a volume allowing reconstruction
  - particularly useful for haemorrhage and fractures
- MRI
  - occasionally used
  - useful in patients who are not waking up
making the request
- does a CT need to be done?
  - NICE guidance, Canadian CT head rules
- does it need to be done urgently?
  - why?
- is the patient safe to come to CT?
common pathology

Teaching playlist

head injury playlist

-<p><strong>Investigating head injury </strong>is frequently required because head injury is common: in the US there are 1.3 million traumatic brain injuries per year <sup>1</sup>. Causes include falls (children and the elderly), motor vehicle accidents (adults) <sup>1</sup>, or direct trauma from an object, assault or inflicted injuries (paediatric patients).</p><h4>Reference article</h4><p>This is a <a href="/articles/summary-article">summary article</a>; we do not have a more in-depth reference article.</p><h4>Summary</h4><ul>
+<p><strong>Investigating head injury </strong>is frequently required because head injury is common: in the US there are 1.3 million traumatic brain injuries per year <sup>1</sup>. Causes include falls (children and the elderly), motor vehicle accidents (adults) <sup>1</sup>, or direct trauma from an object, assault or inflicted injuries (paediatric patients).</p><h4>Reference article</h4><p>This is a <a href="/articles/summary-article">summary article</a>; read more in our article on <a title="Traumatic brain injury" href="/articles/traumatic-brain-injury">traumatic brain injury</a>.</p><h4>Summary</h4><ul>

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