Cervical Spinal Injury In Pediatric Blunt Trauma Patients: Management In The Emergency Department.

Spinal injuries from blunt trauma are uncommon in pediatric patients, representing only about 1.5% of all blunt trauma patients. However, the potentially fatal consequences of spinal injuries make them of great concern to emergency clinicians. Clinical goals in the emergency department are to identify all injuries using selective imaging and to minimize further harm from spinal cord injury. Achieving these goals requires an understanding of the age-related physiologic differences that affect patterns of injury and radiologic interpretation in children, as well as an appreciation of high-risk clinical clues and mechanisms. This issue reviews current approaches to prehospital immobilization, identification of low-risk patients who may be clinically cleared from immobilization, a rational approach to the use of radiologic imaging, and the existing evidence for medical management of spinal cord injuries.