2024 18 Acute head injury in children

Head injuries are common in children, from pedestrian vs motor vehicle accidents, falls or even non-accidental trauma. Knowing how to assess a child with a head injury is an important skill for paediatricians and trainees. Following a trauma system, taking a history, assessing the Glascow Coma Score, and doing a through neurological examination enables the assessment of head trauma as being mild, moderate or severe. More than half the paediatric head injuries are concussion and knowing how to monitor such patients over the first 24 hours and what to advise parents are important. Sometimes head injury needs surgical intervention, and we can usually identify these patients in a timely way even without access to CT scans.