Do cervical spine X-rays for trauma have clinically significant incidental findings?

European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery : Official Publication of the European Trauma Society
L KorenE Peled

Abstract

About 800,000 cervical X-rays for trauma are taken every year in the USA. Those X-rays are reviewed by orthopedic specialists in the emergency room (ER) for traumatic findings. The quantity of incidental atraumatic findings in this very prevalent examination is unknown. We sought to determine the incidence of those findings. We retrospectively reviewed 521 consecutive cervical X-rays of patients with a whiplash injury that visited our ER from February to July 2010. X-rays that were technically insufficient were excluded. This left 356 X-rays that met the inclusion criteria, which were analyzed for incidental findings. The examinations were reviewed by five staff radiologists for incidental findings. The findings were reviewed and classified. We identified incidental X-ray findings in 22 of the 356 patients (6.2 %) who underwent X-ray of the cervical spine during their visit to the ER. Stenosis with disk narrowing was the most common finding (2.8 %), followed by congenital anomaly of the cervical spine (2.2 %). Other findings were enlarged sella turcica (0.6 %), carotid atherosclerosis (0.3 %), and calcification of the stylomastoid ligament (0.3 %). Older age was found to be a risk factor for an incidental finding (p < 0.0001). ...Continue Reading

References

Nov 15, 1986·Lancet·J C WittemanH A Valkenburg
Sep 1, 1994·Pain·Les BarnsleyNikolai Bogduk
Oct 11, 2001·The American Journal of Emergency Medicine·W A MessersmithM J Barry
Oct 2, 2004·Neurosurgery·Jason H Huang, Eric L Zager
Jun 7, 2005·Surgical Neurology·Hossein EskandaryMohammad Eskandari
Aug 13, 2005·The Journal of Trauma·Barry SanchezSalvador Becerra
Jan 12, 2007·The Journal of Trauma·Thomas R PaluskaMichael Biondi
Feb 7, 2008·Spine·Margareta NordinUNKNOWN Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders
Feb 7, 2008·Spine·Jaime GuzmanUNKNOWN Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders
Feb 24, 2009·The Journal of Emergency Medicine·Akpofure Peter EkehMary C McCarthy
Feb 24, 2009·AJR. American Journal of Roentgenology·Richard BarbozaShella Farooki
Apr 10, 2009·European Spine Journal : Official Publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society·Yuichiro MorishitaJeffrey C Wang
May 14, 2009·Vascular Health and Risk Management·R J M W RennenbergA A Kroon
Jun 27, 2009·The American Journal of Emergency Medicine·Tyler W BarrettKeith Wrenn
May 4, 2011·The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery·Raoul van VugtMichael J R Edwards

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Oct 1, 2013·European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery : Official Publication of the European Trauma Society·H Laurer, I Marzi

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Carotid Artery Diseases

Carotid artery disease is a group of pathological conditions of the carotid artery. Discover the latest research on carotid artery disease here.

Related Papers

The British Journal of Radiology
N Keller, F Galatius-Jensen
Transactions of the Ophthalmological Societies of the United Kingdom
J Toland, A Mooney
Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift
F Gerstenbrand, H Zacherl
AJR. American Journal of Roentgenology
Richard BarbozaShella Farooki
© 2021 Meta ULC. All rights reserved