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Influence of clinical information on the diagnosis of a wrist fracture in a child

Three Part Question

in [a child aged 3-12] is [clinical information a good indicator] to [diagnose a wrist fracture]

Clinical Scenario

An eight year old child presents to the emergency department with swelling, local tenderness, pain and crepitus. Can this clinical information accurately diagnose a wrist fracture?

Search Strategy

Medline 1966-June 2005
CINAHL 1982-June 2005
The Cochrane library, issue 2 2005

Search Outcome

1 citation was found and was a high quality retrospective clinical trial

Relevant Paper(s)

Author, date and country Patient group Study type (level of evidence) Outcomes Key results Study Weaknesses
Ehara S
Oct 1999
Japan
20 children under the age of 15 and 20 age-matched controlsclinical trialdetection of fracturessignificantly improved with clinical information

Comment(s)

Wrist fractures are very common in children and accurate diagnosis is essential. This review shows that clinical information should be made available when interpreting radiographs

Clinical Bottom Line

Detection of wrist fractures in children is significantly improved when clinical information is used

References

  1. Ehara S influence of clinical information on the detection of wrist fractures in children