HealthDay News — Whole body computed tomography (WBCT) is not associated with reduced mortality compared with a selective CT approach among children with blunt trauma, according to a study published online April 9 in JAMA Pediatrics.
James A. Meltzer, MD, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and colleagues conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study involving data from children aged 6 months to 14 years with blunt trauma who received an emergent CT scan in the first 2 hours after arrival at the emergency department. Patients who received CT head, chest, and abdomen/pelvis scans were classified as having WBCT, while those who did not receive all 3 scans were classified as having selective CT; data were included for 42,912 children.
The researchers found that 20.4% of the children received a WBCT. Within seven days, 0.9% of the children died. There was no significant difference in mortality for children who received WBCT vs those who received selective CT, after adjustment for propensity score (absolute risk difference, −0.2%; 95% confidence interval, −0.6 to 0.1%). There were no significant associations between WBCT and mortality in subgroup analyses.
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“Among children with blunt trauma, WBCT, compared with a selective CT approach, was not associated with lower mortality,” the authors write. “These findings do not support the routine use of WBCT for children with blunt trauma.”
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