This was a prospective study of children with minor-to-moderate blunt head trauma with a goal of identifying high-risk and low-risk indicators of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The goal was to derive the evidence on which to base appropriate use of head computerized tomography (CT) in children with acute head injury, which will hopefully reduce the number of unnecessary CT scans for children at very low risk for TBI. This will minimize the exposure of these children to the significant drawbacks related to CT (ionizing radiation, transport of children away from the direct observation of the emergency department, pharmacological sedation, and additional health care costs).
The study was co-funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program and the Research Program. Data collection began in June, 2004 at all PECARN sites, and concluded in September, 2006. The network successfully enrolled 34,000 patients for the derivation of two clinical decision rules (one for children < 2 years and one for children > 2 years), and an additional 9,000 patients to validate the decision rules. Multiple abstracts from this study have been presented at national emergency medicine and pediatric meetings to date. Several manuscripts have been published including the main prediction rule manuscript which was published in Lancet (October 3, 2009). The public use data set can be requested here.