Pediatric Neck Trauma
Pediatric neck injuries have significant potential morbidity. Any hemodynamically unstable patient with hard signs of neck injury should be taken to the operating room immediately. Assurance of airway stability in all other pediatric patients with neck injury should take first priority. Bedside tests, including the extended focused assessment with sonography for trauma examination and plain films of the neck and chest, are readily available and can provide helpful information. High-resolution computed tomography (CT) with angiogram has been shown to be the superior imaging study when evaluating the neck for vascular or aerodigestive injury. Additional diagnostic modalities are based on clinical suspicion, signs and symptoms, injury location, and CT results.