Head Injury presentations to ED in school age children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A retrospective review of head injury presentations to the Emergency Department in school age children in North Wales
IRAS ID
336399
Contact name
Julian Owen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bangor University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A in the field, N/A in the field
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
Head injuries are a common presentation in school age children to the emergency department. They are also common amongst the more serious of sport-related injuries There is evidence to suggest the incidence of acquired brain injuries is high in North Wales but currently there is little data to describe the nature and prevalence of these injuries in school-aged children (UKABIF, 2021). If there are recommendations for increased physical activity for children and young people, then appropriate awareness and protocols must be in place for head injury in schools and in organised sport. To inform this, further data is needed on the characteristics of head injury presentations to the emergency department.
The term ‘head injury’ is defined as any trauma to the head other than superficial injuries to the face (NICE, 2021). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be categorised as mild, moderate or severe. The term ‘concussion’ is a subset of traumatic brain injuries and emphasises an impaired functional status following head trauma. It is often used interchangeably with mild TBI but is a subclass of this.
Compared to adults, children are more likely to suffer from a concussion and take longer to recover from the effects. Most post-concussive symptoms resolve. However, sometimes they can be disabling and require further investigation and treatment with the development of post-concussion syndrome presenting with persistent somatic, emotional, and cognitive symptoms. A delay in diagnosis and specialist care for post-concussion syndrome in school age children can impact on learning progression. Very rarely, cases of second impact syndrome can occur when a second concussion occurs before the symptoms of the first concussion have resolved.
School age children of 5-17 years would be eligible for this study whose presentation to ED was coded as ‘head injury’ and their admission data will be retrospectively analysed. The study will be conducted at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board from data from the presentations to the emergency department in the prior three years.REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A