Child Head Injury Project

Traumatic head injury is amongst the most common cause of morbidity, mortality, disability and lost years of productive life in children. In 2009, The Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE) collected data on approximately 6,000 children who attended hospital with head injury in England, Wales, Northern Island, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This was part of The Confidential Enquiry into Head Injury in Childhood.

A research team lead by Prof Alison Kemp and Dr Daniel Farewell at the Institute of Primary Care and Public Health at Cardiff University were awarded the contract to review this data and undertake a one year project to determine how early management of head injury in children affects health outcomes and to identify avoidable factors associated with adverse outcomes.

The specific areas considered in the analysis of the data were:

• The epidemiological features of traumatic head injury in children and young people
• The causes of traumatic head injury
• The assessment and management of traumatic head injury in prehospital and in-hospital settings
• The use of CT head scanning and compliance with NICE head injury guidance (2007)
• How children with suspected maltreatment and abusive head trauma were investigated and managed
  Report published September 2015
• Traumatic head injury in children and young people: a national overview