Paramedics are called to a skating rink, where a 45y/o female patient, Judy, has slipped on ice and struck her head. When they arrive, they find her sitting on a bench, alert and oriented with a GCS of 15. She is able to recall the events immediately leading up to the incident, and witnesses report a 30s loss of consciousness with no seizure activity. She has vomited once and continues to feel nauseated. …
CRACKCast E225 – Head Trauma
View PostTiny Tips: Canadian CT Head Rule
“But Doc, I didn’t hit my head THAT hard” Computed tomography (CT) scans are frequently performed after a head injury to rule out acute intracranial findings. However, most Emergency Department patients with a head injury have no acute CT findings. The Canadian CT Head Rule (CCHR) was developed to help clinicians determine when to order a CT image for patients with minor head injury.1 In 2010, a multi-centre prospective trial implemented the CCHR and …
Tiny Tips: The CATCH Rule
Yesterday CJEM tweeted out one of their latest article to become open-access: Review of the CATCH study: a clinical decision rule for the use of computed tomography in children with minor head injury. While I understand that they are not able to make all of their articles open-access due to financial considerations, they have made the effort to make those articles published >1 year ago freely available. This article provides an overview and …