Abstract

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether patients presenting to the emergency department after a near drowning should have a CT head scan as part of their initial assessment. A search of the literature found only three studies directly relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that anyone with GCS≤4 should have a CT head as an abnormal scan at this stage heralds a very poor prognosis.