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Pre-Hospital Care Management Of A Potential Spinal Cord Injured Patient: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Evidence Based Guidelines.

J Neurotrauma. 2010 Feb 22;

Authors: Ahn H, Singh J, Nathens A, Macdonald R, Travers A, Tallon JM, Fehlings M, Yee A

An interdisciplinary expert panel of medical and surgical specialists involved in the management of patients with potential spinal cord injuries was assembled. Three key questions focused on the pre-hospital management of patients with acute spinal cord injury were generated. These were: 1) What is the optimal type and duration of pre-hospital spinal immobilization in patients with acute SCI? 2) During airway manipulation in the pre-hospital setting, what is the ideal method of spinal immobilization? 3) What is the impact of pre-hospital transport times to definitive care on the outcomes of patients with acute spinal cord injury? A systematic review utilizing multiple databases was performed to determine the current evidence for the specific questions and each article was reviewed and assessed by two reviewers independently based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Guidelines were then created relating to the questions asked. A national Canadian expert panel applied Delphi methods to review and refine recommendations based on the best available evidence for each question (30;36;37).

PMID: 20175667 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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