Resumo

BETTENDORFF, María C.; CALVO, Bernardo  e  HALAC, Eduardo. Interpretación de radiografías de cráneo de niños menores de dos años con traumatismo craneoencefálico por médicos residentes del último año. Arch. argent. pediatr. [online]. 2007, vol.105, n.4, pp.299-304. ISSN 0325-0075.

Introduction. Head trauma is one of the most frequent complaints and the principal cause of death and disability in children. Usually the pediatric resident is the first one to evaluate the patient. Adequate initial management improves treatment and diminishes morbility and mortality. Objectives. Primary endpoint: To determine the accuracy of pediatric residents in interpreting skull radiographs of children younger than two years, with head trauma. Secondary endpoint: To evaluate the resident's knowledge about the initial management of the patient. Study design. Cross-sectional. Material and methods. A set of 17 skull radiographs (10 with fractures, 7 normal) was compiled from children younger than 2 years, evaluated by an experienced radiologist and used as the reference standard. Forty seven last year pediatric residents of eight institutions were evaluated. For comparisons in numerical variables Student's t test was used. Results. The global rate of correct diagnoses was 81,35%. Sensibility in identification of fractures was 82% and specificity 79%. There were statistically significant differences in specificity between public and private hospitals (75,21% and 92,31% respectively), 64,5% of the questions were answered correctly. Conclusion. Although the accuracy in the interpretation of radiographs was similar to the one of previous reports, the theoretical knowledge for managing head trauma was less than ideal. We believe that this area must be stressed in residency training programs.

Palavras-chave : Head trauma; Skull radiographs; Accuracy; Residents.

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