5.1.2 Acute headache attributed to mild traumatic injury to the headHartmut Gobel2018-02-06T10:25:39+00:00

Diagnostic criteria:

1. Headache fulfilling criteria for 5.1 Acute headache attributed to traumatic injury to the head
2. Injury to the head fulfilling both of the following:
   1. associated with none of the following:
      • – loss of consciousness for >30 minutes
      • – Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score <13
      • – post-traumatic amnesia lasting >24 hours¹
      • – altered level of awareness for >24 hours
      • – imaging evidence of a traumatic head injury such as skull fracture, intracranial haemorrhage and/or brain contusion
   2. associated with one or more of the following symptoms and/or signs:
      • – transient confusion, disorientation or impaired consciousness
      • – loss of memory for events immediately before or after the head injury
      • – two or more of the following symptoms suggestive of mild traumatic brain injury:
        • – nausea
        • – vomiting
        • – visual disturbances
        • – dizziness and/or vertigo
        • – gait and/or postural imbalance
        • – impaired memory and/or concentration.

Note:

The duration of post-traumatic amnesia is defined as the time between head injury and resumption of normal continuous recall of events.

Comment:

The diagnostic criteria for mild and those for moderate or severe traumatic injury to the head allow for substantial variability in the severity of the injury classified into each category. This has led some experts to suggest inclusion of additional categories: headache attributed to very mild traumatic injury to the head and headache attributed to very severe traumatic injury to the head. There is insufficient evidence for adding these categories at present, but future studies should investigate the utility of doing so.