Should pediatric patients with isolated skull fractures be admitted, transferred, or discharged from the emergency department, and what are the economic consequences? Original series, systematic review of the literature, and a proposed admission protocol.

Abstract

Objective: Pediatric head trauma is a common reason for emergency department (ED) referrals. Skull fractures are the most common imaging findings in the setting of pediatric trauma. Ample literature negates the necessity of hospitalization for neurologically intact children with isolated skull fractures (ISFs) and when nonaccidental injuries (NAIs) are not suspected. Despite this evidence, in many centers these children are still admitted for observation. The authors performed a retrospective analysis of the outcomes of children admitted with ISFs. A literature review of studies of children with ISFs was also performed. The objective of this study was to assess the necessity of admission of children with ISF.

Methods: A retrospective single-center analysis was performed, based on the electronic referral database of a tertiary pediatric hospital. Pediatric patients (< 18 years old) with a linear skull fracture on CT were included. Patients with additional traumatic intracranial findings on imaging (bleeding, pneumocephalus, edema, etc.) were excluded, as were patients with depressed, open, or displaced fractures. A systematic literature review of the Medline and PubMed databases was performed.

Results: Two hundred fifty-eight children met the criteria between 2019 and 2022. Eighty-one percent sustained a fall. Other mechanisms of injury included blunt-force trauma and road accidents, and 10.5% had an unclear mechanism. Most children had parietal fractures (56.3%), followed by occipital fractures and others. Sixteen percent suffered from chronic illnesses. No cases of growing skull fractures were noted. None of the children needed neurosurgical intervention. Moreover, none needed a follow-up CT scan. Three patients were transferred from a first-tier hospital to the authors' institution, none because of neurosurgical concerns. Other than these 3 patients, all other children were admitted to a pediatric ward for 24-hour observation and subsequently discharged. NAI was highly suspected in 7.1% of children (3/42) suffering from chronic illnesses as opposed to 1.4% (3/216) of healthy children. This difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.056). The literature review yielded 680 papers. After screening for relevance, language, etc., 8 original series with 5823 patients remained. One patient (0.017%) was operated on, but probably not for ISF. The cost difference between discharge from the ED and admission ranged between $520 and $4291 (US dollars). None of the children discharged from the ED returned for hospitalization.

Conclusions: In this original cohort, none of the children had a change in management following their admission. None needed neurosurgical intervention. In children with linear ISFs, a short ED observation should be considered, followed by discharge based on neurological status. A proposed ED discharge protocol is presented.