Cervical Spine Clearance in Obtunded Trauma Patients

Completed

Conditions studied: Coma, Wounds and Injuries

In brief

The optimal method of clearing the cervical spine in obtunded trauma patients is unclear. Computed tomography (CT) identifies most injuries but may miss ligamentous injuries. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has been widely used to exclude ligamentous injuries. We postulate that with the new generation of CT scanners, MR imaging is not needed to rule out significant injuries. Our protocol for clearing the cervical spine in obtunded trauma patients depends on CT alone. We are prospectively following these patients and performing a clinical examination when they are awake to show this is a safe approach.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00573014

Run by

MetroHealth Medical Center

People needed

197

Starts

2006-10-01

Expected to finish

2008-09-30

Last updated by the study team

2017-08-30

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Subjects will include all patients (including children) after blunt trauma in whom cervical spine injury has not been ruled out admitted to MetroHealth Medical Center from 10/1/2004-9/30/2006.

You may not qualify if…

• We are excluding patients with an obvious neurologic deficit attributable to the cervical spine.
• We are excluding patients with abnormalities of the cervical spine that are identified on either plain films or CT.
• We are also excluding those patients in whom the cervical spine can be cleared clinically due to normal mental status.

Where it is running

• MetroHealth Medical Center — Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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