Decision rule identified adolescents at high risk for prolonged concussion symptoms

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Researchers from the Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota created a decision rule to assess adolescent risk for prolonged concussion symptoms, which they presented at the 2014 Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting.

Kara K. Seaton, MD, and colleagues assessed 324 children with a mean age of 13.7 years who were diagnosed with a concussion and admitted to a concussion clinic. Patients aged younger than than 8 years, who had abnormal computed tomography scan results or required neurological intervention were excluded from the study.

Older age and female gender were associated with prolonged recovery time. Researchers used logistic regression and recursive partitioning to assess variables associated with prolonged concussion and create a low-risk clinical decision rule. The rule had a sensitivity of 96.3% (95% CI, 91.6-98.8), specificity of 28.6% (95% CI, 22.3-35.6), and negative predictive value of 91.5% (95% CI, 81.3-97.2) for identifying patients with a low risk for prolonged concussion symptoms.

“We have created a decision rule that can accurately identify patients at lower risk for prolonged symptoms. Risk stratification may help clinicians set expectations about recovery for families, especially regarding resolution of symptoms, return to school, and return to play,” researchers concluded.

For more information:

Seaton KK. Abstract #4126.354. Presented at: PAS 2014; May 2-6, 2014; Vancouver, British Columbia.