Dr Helen GallagherKhalid ALI A Hakami2022-05-262022-05-26https://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/35157Abstract Background & Rationale: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is considered to be the leading cause of death among children and young people worldwide. In addition, it has a huge effect on society, putting a major socio-economic impact on families and tremendous pressure on healthcare providers. TBI cause lesions to form inside the brain, and Computed tomography (CT) scans can help clinicians to make decisions about the need for surgery. CT is considered the primary modality of imaging for the evaluation of paediatric TBI. However, research shows that CT-related ionising radiation could negatively impact a child’s developing brain in the long term. Such a serious consequence is a valid reason for exploring the effectiveness of safer alternatives, such as rapid Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of paediatric TBI. Aim and objective: This review aimed to evaluate rapid MRI compared to CT in terms of relative accuracy efficacy for detecting and diagnosing paediatric TBIs. The objectives were to determine the advantages and disadvantages of CT and rapid MRI for the positive diagnosis of TBI in paediatric patients, to determine how outcomes are correlated with key TBI features in each technique, and to propose recommendations as to how the findings obtained could contribute to care practices related to TBI diagnosis. Methods: A Structured Literature Review (SLR) was undertaken to answer the research question formulated using the PICO framework. A broad search was carried out in various electronic databases using keywords and MeSH terms to identify studies that most importantly meet the review's inclusion criteria. The selected studies were then evaluated by QUADAS-2 checklist to assess their quality. Results: The review identified three studies which met the inclusion criteria and reported the accuracy in terms of sensitivity and specificity. In all the studies, significant inconsistencies in sensitivity and specificity rates were identified. For rapid MRI, sensitivity rates varied between 50% and 95.2% and specificity rates ranged between 36% and 100%, whereas for CT, sensitivity rates varied between 25% and 100% and specificity rates ranged between 32% to 100%. Conclusion: The current review indicated that rapid MRI represents a viable and safer alternative to CT in the assessment and diagnosis of Paediatric TBI.en