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Multicenter Study
. 2025 Jun;32(6):643-649.
doi: 10.1111/acem.15084. Epub 2025 Jan 13.

Performance of individual criteria of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) intraabdominal injury prediction rule

Cosby G Arnold  1 , Paul Ishimine  2 , Kevan A McCarten-Gibbs  3 , Kenneth Yen  4 , Nisa Atigapramoj  3 , Mohamed Badawy  4 , Irma T Ugalde  5 , Pradip P Chaudhari  6 , Jeffrey S Upperman  7 , Nathan Kuppermann  8   9 , James F Holmes  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Performance of individual criteria of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) intraabdominal injury prediction rule

Cosby G Arnold et al. Acad Emerg Med. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) derived and externally validated a clinical prediction rule to identify children with blunt torso trauma at low risk for intraabdominal injuries undergoing acute intervention (IAIAI). Little is known about the risk for IAIAI when only one or two prediction rule variables are positive. We sought to determine the risk for IAIAI when either one or two PECARN intraabdominal injury rule variables are positive.

Methods: We performed a planned secondary analysis of a prospective, multicenter study that included 7542 children (<18 years old) with blunt torso trauma evaluated in six emergency departments from December 2016 to August 2021. Patients with only one or two PECARN rule variables positive were included. The outcome was IAIAI (IAI undergoing therapeutic laparotomy, angiographic embolization, blood transfusion, or two or more nights of intravenous fluids).

Results: Among the 7542 children enrolled, 2986 (39.6%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 38.5%-40.7%) had one or two PECARN variables positive and were included. Of this subpopulation, 227 (7.6%, 95% CI 6.7%-8.6%) had intraabdominal injuries. In the 1639 patients with only one rule variable positive, 21 (1.3%, 95% CI 0.8%-2.0%) had IAIAI. In the 1347 patients with two rule variables positive, 27 (2.0%, 95% CI 1.3%-2.9%) had IAIAI. Risk for IAIAI for each variable was highest for Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score <14 (16/291, 5.5%, 95% CI 3.2%-8.8%) and abdominal wall trauma (three of 321, 0.9%, 95% CI 0.2%-2.7%). Risk for IAIAI when two variables were present was highest when decreased breath sounds (three of 44, 6.8%, 95% CI 1.4%-18.7%) and GCS <14 (10/207, 4.8%, 95% CI 2.3%-8.7%) were present with one other variable.

Conclusions: Few children with blunt torso trauma and one or two PECARN predictor variables present have IAIAI. Those with GCS score <14, however, are at highest risk for IAIAI.

Keywords: blunt abdominal trauma; clinical prediction rule; emergency medicine; pediatrics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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