Skull x-ray criteria endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration: some flaws and proposed modifications.

Some skull fractures may be overlooked if the current FDA-endorsed criteria for ordering roentgenograms of the skull are followed strictly. Such cases raise the issues of the applicability of the criteria to children, the omission from the criteria of factors that are associated with skull fracture, and the fact that the criteria as currently written seem to miss certain types of occult open and depressed fractures. Modifications of two of the criteria are suggested.