Skip to main content
Download PDF
Download ePub

Volume 7 Supplement 1

International Society on Brain and Behaviour: 3rd International Congress on Brain and Behaviour

  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

Predictors of positive CT scans in the elderly trauma patients with minor head injury. Case reports and review of the literature

Annals of General Psychiatry volume 7, Article number: S302 (2008) Cite this article

Background

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were characteristics of the trauma patient with a minor head injury. Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 13-15, that would predict a positive cerebral CT scan.

Materials and methods

An analysis of 300 patients with potential head injuries transported to our department was performed. The following characteristics were analyzed as possible predictors: 1. scene GCS, 2. emergency room GCS, 3. a change in GCS from scene to emergency room, 4. loss of consciousness, 5. focal neurological deficit.

Results

50 per cent (150/300) of the patients underwent CT scanning of the head. CT scans were positive in 5,3 per cent (16/300) of the total group and 10.6 per cent (16/150) of those who underwent CT scanning. In the patients without LOC and ER-GCS of 13-15, all CT scans were negative.

Conclusions

Of all the patients with positive CT scans, 4 underwent emergent craniotomy: 2 for a depressed skull fracture with underlying contusion, and 2 for a temporal bone fracture and an epidural hematoma. Both patients had LOC and SC-GCS and ER-GCS of 15. We present our cases and finally we performed a review of the literature.

References

  1. Livingston DH, Loder PA, Hunt CD: Minimal head injury: is admission necessary?. Am Surg. 1991, 57 (1): 14-7.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Borczuk P: Predictors of intracranial injury in patients with mild head trauma. Ann Emerg Med. 1995, 25 (6): 731-6. 10.1016/S0196-0644(95)70199-0.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Dacey RG, Alves WM, Rimel RW, Winn HR, Jane JA: Neurosurgical complications after apparently minor head injury. Assessment of risk in a series of 610 patients. J Neurosurg. 1986, 65 (2): 203-10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurosurgical Department-Venizeleio General Hospital, Heraklion, Crete

    Nikolaos Syrmos, Ilias Gramatikopoulos, Vasilios Valadakis, Konstantinos Grigoriou & Dimitrios Arvanitakis

Authors
  1. Nikolaos Syrmos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ilias Gramatikopoulos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Vasilios Valadakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Konstantinos Grigoriou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Dimitrios Arvanitakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Syrmos, N., Gramatikopoulos, I., Valadakis, V. et al. Predictors of positive CT scans in the elderly trauma patients with minor head injury. Case reports and review of the literature. Ann Gen Psychiatry 7 (Suppl 1), S302 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-7-S1-S302

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-859X-7-S1-S302

Keywords

Annals of General Psychiatry

ISSN: 1744-859X