Evidence-based diagnosis of nontraumatic headache in the emergency department: a consensus statement on four clinical scenarios.
OBJECTIVE
To provide to emergency department (ED) physicians with guidelines for diagnosis of patients with nontraumatic headaches.


BACKGROUND
Many patients present to an ED with the chief complaint of headache. Causes of nontraumatic headache include life-threatening illnesses, and distinguishing patients with such ominous headaches from those with a primary headache disorder can be challenging for the ED physician.


CONCLUSIONS
We present a consensus statement aimed to be a useful tool for ED doctors in making evidence-based diagnostic decisions in the management of adult patients with nontraumatic headache.


METHODS
A multidisciplinary work performed an extensive review of the medical literature and applied the information obtained to commonly encountered scenarios in the ED.
Cortelli
Pietro
P
Department of Neurologoical Sciences, University of Modena-Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
Cevoli
Sabina
S
Nonino
Francesco
F
Baronciani
Dante
D
Magrini
Nicola
N
Re
Giuseppe
G
De Berti
Gianni
G
Manzoni
Gian Camillo
GC
Querzani
Pietro
P
Vandelli
Alberto
A
D000328:Adult; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004635:Emergency Medicine; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006261:Headache / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic