The American Journal of Surgery
Volume 195, Issue 2 , Pages 170-173 , February 2008

Cervical spine fractures in geriatric blunt trauma patients with low-energy mechanism: are clinical predictors adequate?

  • Sherwin P. Schrag, M.D.

      Affiliations

    • Division of Trauma/Surgical Critical Care, St. Luke’s Hospital and University of Pennsylvania Trauma Network, 801 Ostrum St., Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
    • ,
  • Lori J. Toedter, Ph.D.

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA, USA
    • ,
  • Nathaniel McQuay Jr., M.D.

      Affiliations

    • Division of Trauma/Surgical Critical Care, St. Luke’s Hospital and University of Pennsylvania Trauma Network, 801 Ostrum St., Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1-610-954-2202; fax: +1-610-954-2220.

Received 24 May 2007 ,Revised 25 September 2007

References 

  1. Hobbs F, Stoops N. Demographic trends in the 20th century. In: Washington, DC: United States Census Bureau; 2000;p. 49–70
  2. Hu R, Mustard CA, Burns C. Epidemiology of incident spinal fracture in a complete population. Spine. 1996;21:492–499
  3. Lomoschitz FM, Blackmore CC, Mirza SK, et al. Cervical spine injuries in patients 65 years old and older: epidemiologic analysis regarding the effects of age and injury mechanism on distribution, type, and stability of injuries. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2002;178:573–577
  4. White AA, Panjabi MM. Clinical biomechanics of the spine. Philadelphia: Lippincott; 1990;
  5. Weller SJ, Malek AM, Rossitch E. Cervical spine fractures in the elderly. Surg Neurol. 1997;47:274–281
  6. Spivak JM, Weiss MA, Cotler JM, et al. Cervical spine injuries in patients 65 and older. Spine. 1994;19:2302–2306
  7. Liebermann IH, Webb JK. Cervical spine injuries in the elderly. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1994;76:877–881
  8. Mann F, Kubal W, Blackmore C. Improving the imaging diagnosis of cervical spine injury in the very elderly: implications of the epidemiology of injury. Emerg Radiol. 2000;7:36–41
  9. Daffner RH, Goldberg AL, Evans TC, et al. Cervical vertebral injuries in the elderly: a 10-year study. Emerg Radiol. 1998;5:38–42
  10. Hoffman JR, Mower WR, Wolfson AB, et al. Validity of a set of clinical criteria to rule out injury to the cervical spine in patients with blunt trauma (National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study Group). N Engl J Med. 2000;343:94–99
  11. Ngo B, Hoffman JR, Mower WR. Cervical spine injury in the very elderly. Emerg Radiol. 2000;7:287–291
  12. Stiell IG, Wells GA, Vandemheen KL, et al. The Canadian C-Spine rule for radiography in alert and stable trauma patients. JAMA. 2001;286:1841–1848
  13. Bub L, Blackmore CC, Mann FA, et al. Cervical spine fractures in patients 65 and older: a clinical prediction rule for blunt trauma. Radiology. 2005;234:143–149
  14. Berne JD, Velmahos GC, El-Tawil Q, et al. Value of complete cervical helical computed tomographic scanning in identifying cervical spine injury in the unevaluable blunt trauma patient with multiple injuries: a prospective study. J Trauma. 1999;47:896–903
  15. Woodring JH, Lee C. The role and limitations of computed tomographic scanning in the evaluation cervical trauma. J Trauma. 1992;33:698–708
  16. Schenarts PJ, Diaz J, Kaiser C, et al. Prospective comparison of admission computed tomographic scan and plain films of the upper cervical spine in trauma patients with altered mental status. J Trauma. 2001;51:663–669
  17. Sanchez B, Waxman K, Jones T, et al. Cervical spine clearance in blunt trauma: evaluation of a computed tomography-based protocol. J Trauma. 2005;59:179–183
  18. Blackmore CC, Ramsey SD, Mann FA, et al. Cervical spine screening with CT in trauma patients: a cost-effectiveness analysis. Radiology. 1999;212:117–125

PII: S0002-9610(07)00829-X

doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2007.09.029

The American Journal of Surgery
Volume 195, Issue 2 , Pages 170-173 , February 2008

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution