Safety of Blunt Spinal Injury Patient on Hospital Gurney

Objectives. Restraint of patients on a spine board has been used in the past to prevent further spinal cord injury after rescue of patients from the scene of an accident. Removal from the spine board is a routine protocol in many hospitals once the patient has been cleared of spinal injury. However, the benefit of using a spine board, in light-weight motorcycle-related accident victims, has never been studied before. Materials and methods. A retrospective observational study enrolled patients who had sustained motorcycle-related accidents and were brought to our emergency department (ED). Patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale score lower than 15 and those who died at the ED, or had incomplete data, were excluded. The diagnosis of spinal injury was based upon clinical evaluation and was confirmed by computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging or X-ray reports, as interpreted by a qualified radiologist. A neurological examination was performed, according to the Standard Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury, directly after arrival and again before leaving the ED. Results. During the study period, from January 2007 to December 2010, 91 patients with spinal injuries who met the inclusion criteria, consisting of 35 male and 56 female patients with a mean age of 45.44±18.12 years, were enrolled in our study. The scores of the motor and sensory neurological exams did not show any significant change during the ED stay after being placed in a gurney without a spine board (p=0.432). Conclusions. Removal of the spine board and placement on a hospital gurney sponge is safe in alert patients whose primary examination is completed at the ED. HSING-LIN LIN ( ) WEI-CHE LEE • LIANG-CHI KUO • YUAN-CHIA CHENG • CHAO-WEN CHEN • YEN-KO LIN • TSUNG-YING LIN Division of Trauma, Department of Surgery Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung Department of Trauma Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital 100 Tzyou 1st Road Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan Phone: +88673125895 ext 7553 Fax: +88673208255 E-mail: hsinglin2002@yahoo.com.tw WEI-CHE LEE • LIANG-CHI KUO • YUAN-CHIA CHENG • CHAO-WEN CHEN • YEN-KO LIN • TSUNG-YING LIN • HSING-LIN LIN Department of Emergency Medicine Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung Taiwan HSING-LIN LIN Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Kaohsiung, Taiwan Wei-Che Lee, Hsing-Lin Lin Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan WEI-CHE LEE • LIANG-CHI KUO • YUAN-CHIA CHENG • CHAO-WEN CHEN • YEN-KO LIN • TSUNG-YING LIN • HSING-LIN LIN ORIGINAL SIGNA VITAE 2013; 8(1): 25 30