Application of the Canadian C-Spine rule and nexus low criteria and results of cervical spine radiography in emergency condition
(2018) Pan African Medical Journal — Vol. 30, n° 30, p. 157 (2018)
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- Introduction: the Canadian C Spine Rule (CCR) and the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (Nexus) low criteria are well accepted as guide to help physician in case of cervical blunt trauma. Methods: we aimed to evaluate retrospectively the application of these recommendations in our emergency department. Secondly we analyzed the quality of cervical spine radiography (CSR) in an emergency setting. Results: 281 patients with cervical blunt trauma were analyzed retrospectively. The CCR and the NEXUS rules were respected in 91.2% and 96.8% of cases respectively. No lesions were found in 96.4% of patient. A lesion was present in 1.1% of patient and suspected in 2.5% of patient. The quality of CSR was adequate in only 37.7% of patient. The poor quality of CSR was due either to the lack of C7 vertebrae visualization in 64.6% or other lower vertebrae in 28%. Other causes included the absence of open mouth view (8%), the absence C1 vertebrae visualization (3.4%), artifact in 2.3% and the absence of lateral view in 0.6% of patient. Conclusion: CCR and NEXUS are widely used in our emergency department. The high rate of inadequate CSR reinforces the debate about it’s utility in emergency condition.
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Ngatchou, W., Beirnaert, J., Lemogoum, D., Bouland, C., Youatou, P., Ramadan, A. S., Sontou, R., Bol Alima, M., Plumaker, A., Guimfacq, V., Bika, C., & Mols, P. (2018). Application of the Canadian C-Spine rule and nexus low criteria and results of cervical spine radiography in emergency condition. Pan African Medical Journal, 30(30), 157. https://doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2018.30.157.13256 (Original work published 2018)