LIMP Study

Project status: Active

Research area: Clinical Sciences > Emergency Research

Improving emergency care for children with acute limp

Limb pain in children is common. While often harmless, it can sometimes be caused by serious conditions like infections, cancer, or rheumatic fever.

The challenge

Acute limb pain in children is often benign but can be due to serious and/or life-threatening pathology. Currently, there are no validated clinical approaches to the Emergency Department (ED) assessment of this problem.

Aims of study

We aim to derive and validate a paediatric Emergency Department clinical decision rule that:

Accurately detects serious pathology, including bone and joint infection, malignancy, and acute rheumatic fever
Risk‑stratifies children with suspected serious pathology into those who do and do not require blood tests and/or imaging.

We will also assess the accuracy of existing clinical decision rules and the cost‑effectiveness of each clinical decision rule.

Our research team

Professor Simon Craig, Research Lead
Marietta John-White, Study Coordinator
Naomi Loftus, Study Coordinator

Funding & collaborations

Thanks to our funders, and supporters.

This work funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Clinical Trials & Cohort Studies (GNT2043758).

This study is in collaboration with the Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT) network.

Cohorts

This is a prospective observational cohort study of children with acute limp presenting to 18 Australian and New Zealand Emergency Departments (EDs).