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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Emerg Med Clin North Am. 2010 Aug;28(3):571–594. doi: 10.1016/j.emc.2010.03.003

Figure 1. Indications for Obtaining Non-contrast Head CT after TBI.

Figure 1

Non-contrast head CT is the study of choice to evaluate TBI patients for clinically important neurotrauma. Clinically important neurotrauma is defined as any traumatically induced intracranial injury that requires neurosurgical intervention or requires hospital admission and neurosurgical follow-up. Clinically important TBI occurs rarely after mTBI, therefore minimizing unnecessary head CT scans is desirable. This figure integrates validated decision rules for both adult45 and pediatric patients46 designed to minimize unnecessary CT scans after mTBI.