Summary

Eligibility
for people ages up to 18 years (full criteria)
Location
at Oakland, California and other locations
Dates
study started
completion around
Principal Investigator
by Nicolaus Glomb, MD, MPH

Description

Summary

Cervical spine injuries (CSI) are serious, but rare events in children. Spinal precautions (rigid cervical collar and immobilization on a longboard) in the prehospital setting may be beneficial for children with CSI, but are poorly studied. In contrast, spinal precautions for pediatric trauma patients without CSI are common and may be associated with harm. Spinal precautions result in well-documented adverse physical and physiological sequelae. Of substantial concern is that the mere presence of prehospital spinal precautions may lead to a cascade of events that results in the increased use of inappropriate radiographic testing in the emergency department (ED) to evaluate children for CSI and thus an unnecessary, increased exposure to ionizing radiation and lifetime risk of cancer. Most children who receive spinal precautions and/or are imaged for potential CSI, and particularly those imaged with computed tomography (CT), are exposed to potential harm with no demonstrable benefit. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a Pediatric CSI Risk Assessment Tool that can be used in the prehospital and ED settings to reduce the number of children who receive prehospital spinal precautions inappropriately and are imaged unnecessarily while identifying all children who are truly at risk for CSI.

Keywords

Cervical Spine Injury, Wounds and Injuries, Spinal Injuries

Eligibility

You can join if…

Open to people ages up to 18 years

  • Age 0-17 years
  • Known or suspected exposure to blunt trauma

At least one of the following applies to the patient:

  • Undergoing trauma team evaluation
  • Transported from the scene to participating facility by EMS
  • Undergoing cervical spine imaging at participating facility
  • Transferred to participating facility with cervical spine imaging

You CAN'T join if...

  • Exposed to solely penetrating trauma (e.g. a gunshot or stab wound)

Locations

  • UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital accepting new patients
    Oakland California 94609 United States
  • Children's Hospital UC Davis Health in progress, not accepting new patients
    Sacramento California 95817 United States
  • Children's Hospital Los Angeles accepting new patients
    Los Angeles California 90027 United States

Lead Scientist at UCSF

  • Nicolaus Glomb, MD, MPH
    Dr. Glomb specializes in pediatric emergency medicine and global health. His research and academic focus is on the safety of peditric EMS transport and disaster preparedness.

Details

Status
accepting new patients
Start Date
Completion Date
(estimated)
Sponsor
Julie Leonard
ID
NCT05049330
Study Type
Observational [Patient Registry]
Participants
Expecting 22222 study participants
Last Updated