Factors that predict discharge recommendations following paediatric mild traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Primary objective: To investigate factors that predict discharge recommendations for children and adolescents who present to an Australian paediatric Emergency Department (ED) following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Research design: Retrospective data base analysis. Methods: The study retrospectively analysed an ED database to test the relationship between injury risk factors (symptoms, Glasgow Coma Scale, prior TBI, mechanism of injury and Computed Tomography scan), non-injury risk factors (sex, age, socio-economic status (SES)) and discharge recommendations of 2807 children and adolescents (0–18 years) who presented to a children’s hospital ED over a three year period with mTBI. Results: Univariate analyses indicated a statistically significant association of discharge recommendations with age, SES, mechanism of injury and vomiting. However, multivariate analyses indicated vomiting and mechanism of injury were the only statistically significant risk factor associated with discharge recommendations, when controlling for other risk factors. Conclusions: The current study suggests vomiting and mechanism of injury are the only risk factors predicting discharge recommendations for children and adolescents with mTBI.

KEYWORDS:

• Child
• adolescent
• clinical management
• mild traumatic brain injury
• post-concussion syndrome

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Ms Linda Kluske and Ms Sandy Mashado for their support with data collection and Ms Suzanne Edwards for her statistical support.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.