Current evidence for pharmacological management of pediatric concussion: a systematic review. 2023

Damla Hanalioglu, and Sahin Hanalioglu, and Jorge I Arango, and P David Adelson
Division of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, USA.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a global public health problem and its current management is limited to rest and symptom management. Despite frequent use of drugs for symptom control, there is a lack of consensus on the optimal pharmacological management of post-concussive symptoms. We reviewed the relevant literature to compile the evidence about the pharmaceutical management of pediatric mTBI. We performed a systematic review of the literature available in PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, and ClinicalTrials.Gov as well as through citation tracing. A modified PICO framework was used for the construction of search strategy and eligibility criteria. Risk of bias was assessed using RoB-2 tool for randomized and ROBINS-I for non-randomized studies. A total of 6260 articles were screened for eligibility. After exclusions, a total of 88 articles received full text review. A total of 15 reports representing 13 studies (5 randomized clinical trials, 1 prospective randomized cohort study, 1 prospective cohort study, and 6 retrospective cohort studies) met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. We identified 16 pharmacological interventions in a total of 931 pediatric patients with mTBI. Amytriptiline (n = 4), ondansetron (n = 3), melatonin (n = 3), metoclopramide (n = 2), magnesium (n = 2), and topiramate (n = 2) were investigated in multiple studies. All RCTs were relatively of small size (n ≤ 33/group). The available evidence supporting pharmacological intervention in pediatric mild traumatic brain injury is scarce. We propose a framework to facilitate future collaborative research efforts to test and validate various pharmacological interventions for acute and persistent post-concussive symptoms in children.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D011446 Prospective Studies Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group. Prospective Study,Studies, Prospective,Study, Prospective
D001924 Brain Concussion A nonspecific term used to describe transient alterations or loss of consciousness following closed head injuries. The duration of UNCONSCIOUSNESS generally lasts a few seconds, but may persist for several hours. Concussions may be classified as mild, intermediate, and severe. Prolonged periods of unconsciousness (often defined as greater than 6 hours in duration) may be referred to as post-traumatic coma (COMA, POST-HEAD INJURY). (From Rowland, Merritt's Textbook of Neurology, 9th ed, p418) Cerebral Concussion,Commotio Cerebri,Concussion, Intermediate,Concussion, Mild,Concussion, Severe,Mild Traumatic Brain Injury,Brain Concussions,Cerebral Concussions,Concussion, Brain,Concussion, Cerebral,Intermediate Concussion,Intermediate Concussions,Mild Concussion,Mild Concussions,Severe Concussion,Severe Concussions
D002648 Child A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL. Children
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012189 Retrospective Studies Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons. Retrospective Study,Studies, Retrospective,Study, Retrospective
D015331 Cohort Studies Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics. Birth Cohort Studies,Birth Cohort Study,Closed Cohort Studies,Cohort Analysis,Concurrent Studies,Historical Cohort Studies,Incidence Studies,Analysis, Cohort,Cohort Studies, Closed,Cohort Studies, Historical,Studies, Closed Cohort,Studies, Concurrent,Studies, Historical Cohort,Analyses, Cohort,Closed Cohort Study,Cohort Analyses,Cohort Studies, Birth,Cohort Study,Cohort Study, Birth,Cohort Study, Closed,Cohort Study, Historical,Concurrent Study,Historical Cohort Study,Incidence Study,Studies, Birth Cohort,Studies, Cohort,Studies, Incidence,Study, Birth Cohort,Study, Closed Cohort,Study, Cohort,Study, Concurrent,Study, Historical Cohort,Study, Incidence
D016032 Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic Works about clinical trials that involve at least one test treatment and one control treatment, concurrent enrollment and follow-up of the test- and control-treated groups, and in which the treatments to be administered are selected by a random process, such as the use of a random-numbers table. Clinical Trials, Randomized,Controlled Clinical Trials, Randomized,Trials, Randomized Clinical
D038223 Post-Concussion Syndrome The organic and psychogenic disturbances observed after closed head injuries (HEAD INJURIES, CLOSED). Post-concussion syndrome includes subjective physical complaints (i.e. headache, dizziness), cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes. These disturbances can be chronic, permanent, or late emerging. Post-Concussive Syndrome,Post-Concussion Symptoms,Post-Concussive Symptoms,Post-Concussive Syndrome, Chronic,Chronic Post-Concussive Syndrome,Chronic Post-Concussive Syndromes,Post Concussion Symptoms,Post Concussion Syndrome,Post Concussive Symptoms,Post Concussive Syndrome,Post Concussive Syndrome, Chronic,Post-Concussion Symptom,Post-Concussive Symptom,Post-Concussive Syndromes,Post-Concussive Syndromes, Chronic

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