Characteristics of children with vomiting after minor head trauma: a case-control study.
OBJECTIVE
To study selected factors associated with vomiting after minor head trauma in children.


METHODS
During a 1-year study, 1097 children with a minor head injury were consecutively discharged from the pediatric emergency department; 162 had associated vomiting. A case-control study was conducted, with each subject matched with 2 children of the same age group with a minor head injury who did not have associated vomiting. Final analysis was conducted in 148 case subjects and 296 matched control subjects.


RESULTS
With univariate analysis, a personal history of recurrent headache (6.1% versus 2.4%), motion sickness (27% versus 11.8%), and recurrent vomiting (6.1% versus 0.7%) were significantly more common in the vomiting group, as was a family history of recurrent headache in parents (45.9% versus 27%) or motion sickness in parents (26.4% versus 15.2%) or siblings (14.2% versus 3.7%). The strongest predictors of vomiting were a personal history of recurrent vomiting (odds ratio, 5.90; 95% CI, 1.18-29.47), motion sickness (odds ratio, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.32-4.10), headache at the time of the injury (odds ratio, 4.37; 95% CI, 2.23-8.57), and a strong family history of the same recurrent problems (odds ratio, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.29-2.13).


CONCLUSIONS
Post-traumatic vomiting is significantly related to personal or familial predisposition to vomit rather than to the presence of intracranial lesions.
Da Dalt
Liviana
L
Pediatric Emergency Department, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. dadalt@pediatria.unipd.it
Andreola
Barbara
B
Facchin
Paola
P
Gregolin
Marzia
M
Vianello
Andrea
A
Battistella
Pier Antonio
PA
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014839:Vomiting / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology