TY - JOUR AU - Naseer, Naureen AU - Kapadia, Nazir Najeeb AU - Masud, Sarwat PY - 2022/05/23 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Validity of Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) in Pediatric Trauma Patients - A Cross Sectional Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pakistan JF - Annals of King Edward Medical University JA - Annals KEMU VL - 28 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - 10.21649/akemu.v28i1.4994 UR - https://annalskemu.org/journal/index.php/annals/article/view/4994 SP - 58-63 AB - <p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Head trauma in the pediatric age group is a common presentation in the Emergency Room (ER). The</p><p>Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) tool can help an ER clinician to identify pediatric head</p><p>trauma patients at very low risk of clinically important traumatic brain injuries (ciTBIs) and avoid unnecessary CT scans.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To determine the validity of PECARN rule as compared to the head CT (gold standard) in identifying low risk</p><p>traumatic brain injury pediatric patients. <strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional study was done at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) Emergency Department ED. All pediatric head trauma patients were included in this study between 2017-2019. A total of 218 head trauma cases were reviewed which were evaluated for the PECARN criteria. Data were extracted on a prepared data collection form. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS. Chi-square test was used. <strong>Results: </strong>Among the total 218, 190 cases (87%) had CT scans ordered. Out of these 190 patients 156 (82%) met PECARN criteria, while 34 (18%) were PECARN negative. The sensitivity and specificity of PECARN was calculated as 82% and 33% respectively, with a fair level of agreement with CT scan based on Kappa statistics. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>PECARN has a higher sensitivity but lower specificity in comparison to CT scan. </p> ER -