Predicting Complicated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Adolescent Trauma to Enhance Clinical Decisions in Imaging.

Background: The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) traumatic brain injury algorithm is used to identify children at low risk of clinically significant traumatic brain injuries to reduce computed tomography (CT) exposure. Adapting PECARN rules based on population-specific risk stratification has been suggested to improve diagnostic accuracy.

Objective: This study sought to identify center-specific patient variables, beyond PECARN rules, that may enhance the identification of patients requiring neuroimaging.