Chronic post-traumatic headache in children and adolescents: systematic review of prevalence and headache features

Abstract

The aim of this systematic review is to determine the prevalence and clinical features of chronic post-traumatic headache (CPTH) in children and adolescents. Literature search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane databases and Google Scholar was carried out for all studies reporting on CPTH in children and young people under the age of 18 years between January 1980 and November 2016. Search command included post-traumatic headache, postconcussion syndrome, child and adolescent. Demographic data, diagnostic criteria of headache disorders, occurrence of headache after head injury and headache phenotypes were collected. The prevalence of nonspecific ‘chronic headache’ after head injury in children was 39% and prevalence of CPTH, as defined by the International Classification of Headache Disorders (2004), was 7.6% (95% CI: 5.9–9.7). Migraine-like headache was the most common presentation followed by tension-type headache. Other children had either mixed or unclassified headache disorders.