Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 357, Issue 9258, 10 March 2001, Pages 771-772
The Lancet

Research Letters
Mild head injury, anticoagulants, and risk of intracranial injury

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04163-5Get rights and content

Summary

We studied intracranial damage in patients with mild head injuries who were taking warfarin. Of the 215 785 individuals who visited the Mount Auburn and Beth Israel accident and emergency departments during our study, we identified records for 144 patients by anticoagulation status and computed tomography (CT) imaging. We retrospectively reviewed these patients and ten (7%, 95% CI 3–11) with clinically important injuries on cranial CT. Our findings suggest that patients with head injuries who receive anticoagulants have a similar or greater risk of intracranial injury to those falling into a previously defined moderate-risk category, invalidating a previous conclusion that CT scanning is unnecessary in such patients.

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