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Most patients with minor head injury do not have traumatic abnormalities on computed tomography. To develop a rule to predict detection of intracranial traumatic CT abnormalities or need for neurosurgical intervention, Dutch researchers studied 3181 patients aged 16 or older with recent (within the past 24 hours) blunt head trauma, a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 13 or 14, or a score of 15 with a risk factor for more severe outcome (e.g., loss of consciousness, neurologic deficit, amnesia, vomiting, coagulopathy, intoxication). Fewer than half of the patients presenting with head injury to four hospitals during the study period met these criteria.
The researchers used statistical methods to derive a simple model for clinical use. This mo…