Introduction — This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.
The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.
Links to related guidelines are provided separately. (See "Society guideline links: Increased intracranial pressure and moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury" and "Society guideline links: Sports-related concussion" and "Society guideline links: Pediatric trauma".)
International
●Concussion in Sport Group (CISG): Consensus statement on concussion in sport – The 5th international conference on concussion in sport held in Berlin, October 2016 (published 2018)
Canada
●Choosing Wisely Canada: Don't do imaging for minor head trauma unless red flags are present (2021)
●Choosing Wisely Canada: Don't order CT head scans in adults and children who have suffered minor head injuries (unless positive for a validated head injury clinical decision rule) (updated 2020)
●Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS): Position statement for the management of the paediatric patient with acute head trauma (2013, reaffirmed 2018)
United States
●Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP): Updated mild traumatic brain injury guideline for adults
●American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Clinical report on the evaluation of the visual system by the primary care provider following concussion (2022)
●AAP: Policy statement on vision and concussion – Symptoms, signs, evaluation, and treatment (2022)
●American College of Radiology (ACR): ACR Appropriateness Criteria on head trauma, update (2021)
●ACR: ACR Appropriateness Criteria on head trauma – Child (revised 2019)
●American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM): Position statement on concussion in sport (2019)
●Brain Trauma Foundation (BTF): Guidelines for the management of pediatric severe traumatic brain injury, 3rd edition (2019)
●Concussion guidelines step 2 – Evidence for subtype classification (2019)
●AAP: Clinical report on sports-related concussion in children and adolescents (2018)
●CDC: Guideline on the diagnosis and management of mild traumatic brain injury among children (2018)
●Choosing Wisely: Avoid ordering a brain CT or brain MRI to evaluate an acute concussion unless there are progressive neurological symptoms, focal neurological findings on exam, or there is concern for a skull fracture (2014)
●Choosing Wisely: Don't routinely obtain CT scanning of children with mild head injuries (2014)
●American Academy of Neurology (AAN): Summary of evidence-based guideline for evaluation and management of concussion in sports, update (2013)
●American College of Surgeons (ACS): Statement on concussion and brain injury (2012)
●Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST): Evaluation and management of mild traumatic brain injury – A practice management guideline (2012)
●American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), AMSSM, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), and American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine (AOASM): Concussion (mild traumatic brain injury) and the team physician – A consensus statement, update (2011)
Europe
●European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS): Guidelines on mild traumatic brain injury (2012)
United Kingdom
●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Clinical guideline on head injury – Assessment and early management (2014, updated 2019)
●Choosing Wisely UK: Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) – In cases of a minor head injury, imaging is not likely to be useful (2016)
●Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (FSEM), Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), and Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS): Concussion guidelines for the education sector (2015)
●NICE: Quality standard on head injury (2014)
●FSEM: Position statement – Concussion management (2013)
Australia-New Zealand
●Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT): Australian and New Zealand guidelines for mild to moderate head injuries in children (2021)
●Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), Australian Medical Association (AMA), Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians (ACSEP), and Sports Medicine Australia (SMA): Position statement on concussion in sport Australia (2019)
●Choosing Wisely Australia: Don't request computed tomography (CT) head scans in patients with a head injury, unless indicated by a validated clinical decision rule (2015)
Japan
●[In Japanese] Choosing Wisely Japan: Should a CT scan be done when a child hits their head? (2016)
●[In Japanese] Choosing Wisely Japan: When someone hits their head, when is a CT scan necessary, and when is it not needed? (2016)
