UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Trauma

Title: Clearing the Adult Cervical Spine

Keywords: Cspine, nexus, Canadian, rule (PubMed Search)

Posted: 8/9/2024 by Robert Flint, MD (Emailed: 8/12/2024) (Updated: 8/12/2024)
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A reminder of two validated tools used to determine the need for cervical spine imaging in adult blunt trauma patients.   A recent meta analysis concluded:

“Based on studies, both CCR and NEXUS were sensitive rules that have the potential to reduce unnecessary imaging in cervical spine trauma patients. However, the low specificity and false-positive results of both of these tools indicate that many people will continue to undergo unnecessary imaging after screening of cervical SCI using these tools. In this meta-analysis, CCR appeared to have better screening accuracy.”

References

Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2023; 11(1): e5.

Published online 2023 Jan 1. doi: 10.22037/aaem.v11i1.1833

PMCID: PMC9807951

PMID: 36620739

Canadian C-spine Rule versus NEXUS in Screening of Clinically Important Traumatic Cervical Spine Injuries; a systematic review and meta-analysis

Mohammadhossein Vazirizadeh-mahabadi1 and Mobina Yarahmadi2