Cervical Spine Red Flags Flashcards
What is the purpose of the Canadian C-Spine Rules?
To determine whether patients with neck trauma require cervical spine imaging to rule out significant injuries.
What are the three main criteria categories in the Canadian C-Spine Rules?
High-risk factors (mandatory imaging).
Low-risk factors (safe to assess range of motion).
Ability to actively rotate the neck (to assess clearance).
What are the high-risk factors that mandate cervical spine imaging?
Age ≥ 65 years.
Dangerous mechanism of injury (e.g., fall from >1 metre, axial load to the head, motor vehicle collision at high speed).
Paresthesias in the extremities.
What are the low-risk factors that allow safe assessment of neck range of motion?
Simple rear-end motor vehicle collision.
Patient is sitting upright in the emergency department.
Patient is ambulatory at any time after the injury.
Delayed onset of neck pain (not immediate).
Absence of midline cervical spine tenderness.
What is considered a dangerous mechanism of injury?
Fall from a height of over 1 metre or 5 stairs.
Axial load injury (e.g., diving).
High-speed motor vehicle collision (>100 km/h), rollover, or ejection.
Collision involving motorised recreational vehicles.
Bicycle collision.
Which types of rear-end collisions are not considered low-risk?
If the vehicle was pushed into oncoming traffic.
If the collision involved a bus, truck, or rollover.
High-speed collisions.
What is the final step in the Canadian C-Spine Rules after ruling in low-risk factors?
Assess whether the patient can actively rotate their neck:
They must be able to rotate their neck 45 degrees to the left and right.
If unable, imaging is required.
