title: Necessity of monitoring after negative head CT in acute head injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence of delayed complications in acute head injury (HI) patients with an initial normal head computed tomography (CT).
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study included 3023 consecutive patients who underwent head CT due to an acute HI at the Emergency Department (ED) of Tampere University Hospital (August 2010-July 2012). Regardless of clinical injury severity, the patients with a normal head CT were selected (n=2444, 80.9%). The medical records of these patients were reviewed to identify the individuals with a serious clinically significant complication related to the primary HI. The time window considered was the following 72h after the primary head CT. A repeated head CT in the hospital ward, death, or return to the ED were indicative of a possible complication.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority (n=1811, 74.1%) of the patients with a negative head CT were discharged home and 1.1% (n=27) of these patients returned to ED within 72h post-CT. A repeated head CT was performed on 12 (44.4%) of the returned patients and none of the scans revealed an acute lesion. Of the 632 (25.9%) CT-negative patients admitted to the hospital ward from the ED, a head CT was repeated in 46 (7.3%) patients within 72h as part of routine practice. In the repeated CT sample, only one (0.2%) patient had a traumatic intracranial lesion. This lesion did not need neurosurgical intervention. The overall complication rate was 0.04%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the present study, which includes head injuries of all severity, the probability of delayed life-threatening complications was negligible when the primary CT scan revealed no acute traumatic lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: harri.isokuortti@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Harri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Isokuortti
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Rehabilitation, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Teemu M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Luoto
authors.affiliation: Medical Imaging Centre, Department of Radiology, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Anneli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kataja
authors.affiliation: Medical Imaging Centre, Department of Radiology, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brander
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Jari
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Siironen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Rehabilitation, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Suvi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liimatainen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School & Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Grant L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Iverson
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Aarne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ylinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Rehabilitation, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ohman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014193:Trauma Centers
keywords: Computed tomography; Head injury; Hospital discharge; Mortality; Traumatic brain injury