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Use of computed tomography in the evaluation of head-injured children varies widely. To assess the use of head CT over time, these authors conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey database on pediatric (ages, 0–18 years) head trauma visits at U.S. emergency departments from 1995 through 2003.
They selected 2747 patient encounters, which represent more than 10 million pediatric head trauma visits. Use of CT increased from 12.8% in 1995 to 22.4% in 2003 and peaked at 28.6% in 2000. CT use was lower in pediatric specialty EDs than in general EDs (13% vs. 22%) and was highest in older children (32% in patients aged 10–18 years, 20% in those aged 5–9 years, 11% in those aged 1–4 years,…