Risk for Traumatic Brain Injuries in Children with Isolated Loss of Consciousness

In a planned secondary analysis of children with blunt head trauma presenting to centers in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), investigators assessed the risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI) among children younger than 18 years with isolated loss of consciousness (LOC).

Of 40,693 children, 6286 had LOC (median age, 13 years; 91% aged ≥2 years). Of 2780 patients with isolated LOC (no other PECARN predictors of intracranial injury), 1993 (72%) underwent computed tomography (CT) at the discretion of the treating provider. In this group, the rate of TBI on CT was 2%, and the rate of clinically important brain injuries (death, neurosurgical intervention, intubation longer than 24 hours, or hospitalization for ≥2 nigh…