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The Canadian C-Spine Rule for Radiography

Richard H. Daffner, MD

JAMA. 2001;286:1893-1894.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

One of the most challenging clinical issues for physicians who care for trauma patients involves the evaluation of possible cervical spine (C-spine) injury. Emergency physicians, trauma surgeons, and radiologists face the dilemma of having to evaluate low-risk patients while dealing with attempts at cost containment on the part of hospital administrators and third-party payers. In addition, the threat of a lawsuit for missed spinal injury has led many physicians to practice "defensive medicine," and consequently routinely obtain C-spine radiography for most trauma patients.

Some of the earliest attempts to address this problem began more than a decade ago when questions were asked about the necessity of performing cervical radiography on all trauma patients.¹ In 1990, Vandemark² published a list of clinical and history-based indicators for patients at high risk for C-spine injury. These included high-velocity blunt trauma, the presence of multiple extremity fractures, evidence of direct . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.

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The Canadian C-Spine Rule for Radiography in Alert and Stable Trauma Patients
Ian G. Stiell, George A. Wells, Katherine L. Vandemheen, Catherine M. Clement, Howard Lesiuk, Valerie J. De Maio, Andreas Laupacis, Michael Schull, R. Douglas McKnight, Richard Verbeek, Robert Brison, Daniel Cass, Jonathan Dreyer, Mary A. Eisenhauer, Gary H. Greenberg, Iain MacPhail, Laurie Morrison, Mark Reardon, and James Worthington
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ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

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