[Mild head injury: diagnostic pitfalls and complications].

With regard to diagnosis and treatment, there is no general agreement about the management of mild head injury. The value of clinical discoveries and the indications for x-ray investigations are controversially discussed, as well as the risks of radiation exposure. Important criteria in the judgment of mild head injury are knowledge of its possible stages over time (primary and secondary unconsciousness and symptom free interval), the dynamics of secondary intracranial injury development (epidural or subdural hematoma, brain contusion, brain swelling, brain edema), and the priority given to neurologic findings, accompanying vegetative symptoms and computerized tomography and x-ray results. By means of these parameters, an algorithm for appropriately managing the diagnostics and processing of patients with mild head injury has been created.