CT for all or selective approach? Who really needs a cervical spine CT after blunt trauma

Acute cervical facet fractures are increasingly being detected due to the use of cervical spine CT imaging in the initial assessment of trauma patients. For displaced cervical facet fractures with dislocations and subluxations, early surgery can decompress the spinal cord and stabilize the spine. For patients with non-displaced cervical facet fractures, the challenge in managing these patients is the determination of spinal stability. Although many of the patients with non-displaced cervical facet fractures can be managed with a cervical collar, the imaging needs to be analyzed carefully since certain fracture patterns may be better managed with early surgical stabilization.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Plain radiography does not add any clinically significant advantage to multidetector row computed tomography in diagnosing cervical spine injuries in blunt trauma patients.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1157915.617976 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Elfyn Thomas

Keyword(s):

Computed Tomography ◽

Cervical Spine ◽

Blunt Trauma ◽

Plain Radiography ◽

Multidetector Row Computed Tomography ◽

Trauma Patients ◽

Cervical Spine Injuries ◽

Multidetector Row ◽

Spine Injuries ◽

Clinically Significant

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SCIWORA no more? The case for targeted cervical spine MRI in blunt trauma

Journal of Neuroradiology ◽

10.1016/j.neurad.2021.04.034 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 139-140

Author(s):

Lotfi Hacein-Bey

Keyword(s):

Cervical Spine ◽

Blunt Trauma ◽

Spine Mri

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Can emergency physicians accurately rule out clinically important cervical spine injuries by using computed tomography?

CJEM ◽

10.2310/8000.2013.130978 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 16 (02) ◽

pp. 131-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hendrik P. Van Zyl ◽

James Bilbey ◽

Alan Vukusic ◽

Todd Ring ◽

Jennifer Oakes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cervical Spine ◽

Cervical Spine Injury ◽

Clinical Skills ◽

Ct Scans ◽

Spine Injury ◽

Emergency Physicians ◽

Cervical Spine Injuries ◽

Spine Ct ◽

Spine Injuries ◽

Rule Out

ABSTRACT Objective: Emergency physicians are expected to rule out clinically important cervical spine injuries using clinical skills and imaging. Our objective was to determine whether emergency physicians could accurately rule out clinically important cervical spine injuries using computed tomographic (CT) imaging of the cervical spine. Method: Fifteen emergency physicians were enrolled to interpret a sample of 50 cervical spine CT scans in a nonclinical setting. The sample contained a 30% incidence of cervical spine injury. After a 2-hour review session, the participants interpreted the CT scans and categorized them into either a suspected cervical spine injury or no cervical spine injury. Participants were asked to specify the location and type of injury. The gold standard interpretation was the combined opinion of two staff radiologists. Results: Emergency physicians correctly identified 182 of the 210 abnormal cases with cervical spine injury. The sensitivity of emergency physicians was 87% (95% confidence interval [CI] 82–91), and the specificity was 76% (95% CI 74–77). The negative likelihood ratio was 0.18 (95% CI 0.12–0.25). Conclusion: Experienced emergency physicians successfully identified a large proportion of cervical spine injuries on CT; however, they were not sufficiently sensitive to accurately exclude clinically important injuries. Emergency physicians should rely on a radiologist review of cervical spine CT scans prior to discontinuing cervical spine precautions.

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