Hyperglycemia in pediatric head trauma patients: a cross-sectional study

• Autor(a) principal: Melo,José Roberto Tude
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Reis,Rodolfo Casimiro, Lemos-Júnior,Laudenor Pereira, Coelho,Henrique Miguel Santos, Almeida,Carlos Eduardo Romeu de, Oliveira-Filho,Jamary
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2009000500004
• topic: adolescents; children; head trauma; hyperglycemia; prevalence

OBJECTIVE: To verify the prevalence of acute hyperglycemia in children with head trauma stratified by the Glasgow coma scale (GCS). METHOD: A prospective cross-sectional study carried out with information from medical records of pediatric patients presenting with head injury in the emergency room of a referral emergency hospital during a one year period. We considered the cut-off value of 150 mg/dL to define hyperglycemia. RESULTS: A total of 340 children were included and 60 (17.6%) had admission hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia was present in 9% of mild head trauma cases; 30.4% of those with moderate head trauma and 49% of severe head trauma. We observed that among children with higher blood glucose levels, 85% had abnormal findings on cranial computed tomography scans. CONCLUSION: Hyperglycemia was more prevalent in patients with severe head trauma (GCS <8), regardless if they had or not multiple traumas and in children with abnormal findings on head computed tomography scans.