ArticleEuropean journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society2021
Increased and unjustified CT usage in paediatric C-spine clearance in a level 2 trauma centre.
Article in European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 4 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Triage tools for detecting cervical spine injury in paediatric trauma patients.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Disparities in computed tomography utilization for pediatric blunt trauma: a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing pediatric and non-pediatric trauma centers.Emergency radiology · 2023Pooled it
- Can we do less? A review of imaging practices for evaluating cervical spine injuries in pediatric blunt trauma patients.Pediatric surgery international · 2025Article
- Observational
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeCervical spine injury after blunt trauma in children is rare but can have severe consequences. Clear protocols for diagnostic workup are, therefore, needed, but currently not available. As a step in developing such a protocol, we determined the incidence of cervical spine injury and the degree of protocol adherence at our level 2 trauma centre.
methodsWe analysed data from all patients aged < 16 years suspected of cervical spine injury after blunt trauma who had presented to our hospital during two periods: January 2010 to June 2012, and January 2017 to June 2019. In the intervening period, the imaging protocol for diagnostic workup was updated. Outcomes were the incidence of cervical spine injury and protocol adherence in terms of the indication for imaging and the type of imaging.
resultsWe included 170 children in the first study period and 83 in the second. One patient was diagnosed with cervical spine injury. Protocol adherence regarding the indication for imaging was > 80% in both periods. Adherence regarding the imaging type decreased over time, with 45.8% of the patients receiving a primary CT scan in the second study period versus 2.9% in the first.
conclusionRadiographic imaging is frequently performed when clearing the paediatric cervical spine, although cervical spine injury is rare. Particularly CT scan usage has wrongly been emerging over time. Stricter adherence to current protocols could limit overuse of radiographic imaging, but ultimately there is a need for an accurate rule predicting which children really are at risk of injury.
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