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In a secondary analysis of data from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), researchers determined the risk for traumatic brain injury (TBI) among children aged 2 to 18 years with blunt head trauma and headache. Investigators compared outcomes between patients with isolated headache — defined as headache in the absence of an extensive list of other clinical findings for TBI (e.g., seizure, vomiting, amnesia, neurologic deficits, and palpable skull fractures) — and those with nonisolated headache.
Of 12,675 children (median age, 12 years), 2462 (20%) had isolated headaches. Head computed tomography (CT) was performed in 52% of children, including 450 (19%) of those with isolated headaches. Clinically important TBI (ci…