© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, British Association for Accident & Emergency Medicine, & Faculty of Accident & Emergency Medicine
EDITORIAL
NICE guidelines
Are we ready for NICE head injury guidelines in Scotland?
1 Department of Accident and Emergency Medicine, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, UK
2 Accident and Emergency Department, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Mr I J Swann
Department of Accident and Emergency Medicine, Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow G4 0SF, UK; swann@campsierd.fsnet.co.uk
The major challenge for A&E is implementation of realistic guidelines
Keywords: head injury; NICE guidelines
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Any guideline that gives priority to the prompt identification of patients at risk of brain injury deserves to be supported and timely imaging (CT brain scan or skull radiograph, or both) is an essential part of this process. Recently published guidelines recognise the increased availability of emergency CT in the UK.1–3 The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network Publication number 46 (August 2000) recommends the increased use of CT brain scans for selected patients with mild head injury including those with the radiological demonstration of a skull fracture.2
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence: Clinical Guideline (2003)3 includes an adapted form of The Canadian CT head rules,4 which lowers the threshold for scanning patients with mild head injury much further and relies very little on the use of skull radiographs.
A concern is whether such guidelines can be safely and effectively implemented if hospitals in the UK lack the necessary
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Primary survey
- Pete Driscoll, Jim Wardrope
Emerg. Med. J. 2004 21: 399.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Hassan, Z, Smith, M, Littlewood, S, Bouamra, O, Hughes, D, Biggin, C, Amos, K, Mendelow, A D, Lecky, F
(2005). Head injuries: a study evaluating the impact of the NICE head injury guidelines. Emerg. Med. J.
22: 845-849
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Tasker, R C
(2005). Skull x rays, CT scans, and making a decision in head injury. Arch. Dis. Child.
90: 774-775
[Full Text] -
Coats, T J
(2004). NICE head injury guidelines. Emerg. Med. J.
21: 402-402
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Trauma
-
Trauma CNS / PNS
-
Clinical diagnostic tests
-
Radiology (diagnostics)
-
Radiology
- Relevant Article
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
