Acute Cervical Spine Injuries: Diagnosis and Management

Acute cervical spine injuries (CSI) are devastating types of injuries occurring largely in the economically productive population. CSI have been of major public health problems because of consumption of large amount of both personal and public resources in addition to giving rise to long-term disability for the patient. Over the years an effort has been made to develop ways to evaluate the cervical spine in the setting of trauma using reasonably fast and accurate methods. Similarly, refinement in the management of these patients has significantly improved the outcome. In this article an attempt has been made to review the pertinent literature and extract the information tailored to us regarding the diagnosis and management of cervical spine injuries, which can be used effectively in areas where even only x-ray facility is available. Key Words: Trauma, spinal cord, cervical spine, stabilization