We recently observed three patients who had been assessed following head injuries that did not fulfil the NICE criteria for a CT scan, but who subsequently were found to have significant brain injury, all of whom were on warfarin. This experience prompted us to categorise whether the CT scans ...
This study audits the process of the management of patients with head injury presenting at Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments and examines the impact upon resources of introducing NICE guidelines for eligibility of a CT scan. Methods A retrospective audit of consecutive patients of any age,...
An altered mental state is a frequent problem in patients with major trauma. Traumatic brain injuries are the most common cause of this and require rapid assessment and intervention to prevent further neurological injury. Sound working knowledge of both
MRI is sensitive for detecting and characterizing subacute and chronic brain injuries. MRI is generally considered to be superior to CT after 48–72 h from injury. MRI is better than CT in detecting subacute–chronic hematomas with changing blood products [11,12,13]. In case of a discrepancy...
We recently observed three patients who had been assessed following head injuries that did not fulfil the NICE criteria for a CT scan, but who subsequently were found to have significant brain injury, all of whom were on warfarin. This experience prompted us to categorise whether the CT scans ...
Head injurycomputerised tomographyNICE guidelinesGlasgow Coma ScoreThe objective of this study was to investigate how many patients with minor head injury would have required computerised tomography (CT) imaging if they were to be managed according to the National Institute ...
The mean time to scan for the one-hour indications decreased from 73 to 55聽minutes. The mean time to report all scans decreased from 89 to 57聽minutes. The survey results were encouraging. Conclusion Adherence to NICE guidelines for head injury is inadequate but can be improved by ...
Head injuryguidelinesquality improvementinterventionsCT scansObjective Head injury is a common presentation to the emergency department yet adherence to guidelines for management is suboptimal. Our study assesses adherence to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) computed tomography (CT) ...
of indications for anticoagulation therapy; the establishment of local safeguarding boards in the UK, requiring front-line clinical staff to assess not only the severity of the head injury but also why it occurred; and new evidence on the initial assessment and early management of head injury. Th...
The indications and number for skr and CT were compared with NICE and Scandinavian head injury guidelines. Results : Seven hundred and seventeen patients were seen between January and June 2005. Six hundred and seven (84.6%) patients had skr and 25 had CT scan. Thirty-three patients were ...