Repeat cranial tomography in patients with mild head injury and stable neurological examination — a perspective from a developing country

ObjectiveTo determine the frequency of altered findings on repeat cranial tomography (CT) in patients with mild head injury along with stable neurological examination at tertiary care hospital.MethodCross-sectional study was done in the Department of Radiology, Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi from January 2008 to September 2010. All patients with mild head injury in terms of Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) who underwentrepeat scan without clinical or neurological deterioration in the emergency department of a tertiary care centre were included. The collected data were accordingly entered and analyzed by the principal investigator using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0.ResultsIn all 275 patients, only 17 (6%) of the patients were found worseing on repeat CT, 120 (43.63%) scans improved, 138 (50.18%) unchanged and 17 (6.18%) worsened. None of these patients showed signs of clinical deterioration.ConclusionOur results suggest that for patients with mild head injury and stable neurological examination, only 6% of them show deterioration on repeat CT, especially when patients’ GCS is below 13.