Use of head injury instruction cards in accident centres.

Abstract

This study reports on the value of head injury instruction cards as purveyors of information to patients. Patients over 10 years old attending the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary Accident and Emergency Department with a mild head injury were invited to attend a special brain injury follow-up clinic, where they were asked to complete a questionnaire. Patients failing to attend this clinic were contacted and asked to complete the questionnaire. This revealed that they were no less severely affected by the injury as the attenders. They were asked why they had not attended and a significant number of patients had no recall of being given a head injury instruction card on which the information of the follow-up clinic was given. Memory loss was the most likely cause of this and is more common than is widely appreciated in patients attending accident and emergency departments.