NEW YORK - the observation of some of the children after a head injury can help doctors decide to those in need of a head of x-ray, according to a new study published in Pediatrics.
This is important because researchers are still not certain if too many of these x-ray, computed tomography or CT, could cause cancer decades later.
CT scans can help doctors recognize the serious head injuries who need treatment. But the observation is probably a good strategy for children who have a serious brain injury risks, but are not serious symptoms, said Dr Lise Nigrovic in Boston at the hospital for children, who worked on the study.
If a kids appears to the ER very quickly after a head injury, "you can just not been enough time to develop symptoms" she told Reuters Health. Or a kid "may have some symptoms that make you a little concerned, but you just want some time" before making a decision to an x-ray.
"We all want make sure you use computed tomography in cases where it is likely to be positive and that save us the children of radiation for those we know are very unlikely to be positive," Dr. Martin Osmond, of the children's Hospital of Eastern Ontariotold Reuters Health.
"This study adds important new information on which to observe" before making this decision, said Osmond, who has no connection with the new study.
Nigrovic and colleagues examined data on more than 40,000 children with head trauma that have been taken to one of the 25 different emergency rooms.
The original data had been collected by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network. Doctors treating children made a note in their files if each child was kept in the hospital and observed by physicians and nurses before they decided to perform a CT scan or not.
About 5,400 children - or 1-7 - have been observed. These children were slightly less likely to get a CT scan: 31 per cent of them had x-ray head, compared to 35% of children when doctors took this decision immediately.
In both groups, less than 1 of every 100 children had serious brain damage.
Twenty - six children that have been observed and sent home without a CT scan later returned for a x-ray - and 1 of them eventually have a brain injury diagnosed by x-ray.
The research team concluded this conclusion that the observation of some children before taking the decision on a CT scan may be a safe and effective way to reduce the number of these analyses.
Nigrovic gave the example of 4 years who have fallen a swing. "They're complained of headache (and) they vomited once at home," she said. But they are awake and talking 2 hours after the injury, making doctors less fear. "It's a great patient for observation," she said.
Osmond believes that the study is an accurate picture of how doctors are now treating these patients: in cases serious doctors will get an analysis immediately, in cases where they believe that symptoms are sufficiently mild, they are likely to send patients home, but when in doubt, they observe you the child to see if there are changes, he explained.
Osmond added, some questions still remain. For example, we know not just how long it is logical for doctors to observe children deciding whether or not to do a CT scan or send them to the home.
Which, as well as how safe it is put off CT scans by observing a wounded child, will be at the heart of future research, said Nigrovic.
No comments:
Post a Comment