In its 2014 briefing paper, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) defines head injury as any trauma (external force) to the head other than superficial injuries to the face. It also defines traumatic brain injury as a traumatically induced structural injury and/or physiological disruption of brain function as a result of an external force that is indicated by new onset or worsening of at least one of the following clinical signs, immediately following the event:
- any period of loss of or a decreased level of consciousness.
- any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the injury.
- any alteration in mental state at the time of the injury (confusion, disorientation, slowed thinking, etc).
- neurological deficits (weakness, loss of balance, change in vision, praxis, paresis/plegia, sensory loss, aphasia, etc) that may or may not be transient.
- intracranial lesion.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a community foundation trust that provides acute specialist services to a local population of over 300,000 people across the North West of England including the management of head injuries. This audit assessed trust compliance with the updated 2023 NICE guidelines for investigating and managing head injury using the Royal College of Radiologists' Audit Live template1.