The Infant Scalp Score: A Validated Tool to Stratify Risk of Traumatic Brain Injury in Infants With Isolated Scalp Hematoma.

OBJECTIVES: The objective was to validate the previously derived Infant Scalp Score (ISS) that uses clinical signs in infants with isolated scalp hematoma (ISH) after head trauma to stratify risk for clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI) or TBI on computed tomography (CT).

METHODS: Using the publicly available Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network TBI data set, we selected infants ≤ 1 year with GCS 14 to 15 who had ISH (defined as hematoma without other signs/symptoms of TBI). CT scans were obtained at the treating physician's discretion. We calculated ISS based on age, hematoma size, and location (range = 0-8) for each patient and calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the score for ciTBI and TBI on CT across a range of ISS cut-points.

RESULTS: We included 1,289 infants ≤ 1 year of whom 462 (36%) had CT performed. Twelve had ciTBI and 59 had TBI on CT. An ISS cutoff ≥ 4 had sensitivity of 100% for ciTBI (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.74 to 1.0) and TBI with specificity of 0.49 (95% CI = 0.46 to 0.51). An ISS cutoff of ≥5 had a sensitivity of 100% for ciTBI (95% CI = 0.74 to 1.0) and specificity of 0.68 (95% CI = 0.66 to 0.71), but missed three infants with TBI on CT (none of whom required intervention). The receiver operating characteristic curves for clinical score to detect ciTBI and TBI had areas under the curve of 0.916 and 0.807, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The ISS accurately stratified risk for ciTBI and TBI on CT in infants with ISH and is a useful tool to help guide clinical decision making.