The changing face of mild head injury: Temporal trends and patterns in adolescents and adults from 1997 to 2008

OBJECTIVE: To explore the temporal trend of incidence, causes of injury and main characteristics of adolescent and adult subjects with mild head injury (MHI). DESIGN: This study had a retrospective design. SETTING: The study was conducted in a longitudinal database of an Italian Emergency Department (ED). PARTICIPANTS: The study comprised 19124 consecutive subjects who visited and were managed within 24h from the event, according to a predefined protocol for MHI from 1997 to 2008. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence, demography, cause of injury and characteristics of any post-traumatic intracranial lesion within 7 days from MHI. RESULTS: The number of subjects with MHI decreased from 2019 per year (1997-1999) to 1232 per year (2006-2008; P for linear trend Language: en