The cervical collar has been routinely used for trauma patients for more than 30 years and is a hallmark of state-of-the-art prehospital trauma care. However, the existing evidence for this practice is limited: Randomized, controlled trials are largely missing, and there are uncertain effects on mortality, neurological injury, and spinal stability. Even more concerning, there is a growing body ...

The cervical collar has been routinely used for trauma patients for more than 30 years and is a hallmark of state-of-the-art prehospital trauma care. However, the existing evidence for this practice is limited: Randomized, controlled trials are largely missing, and there are uncertain effects on mortality, neurological injury, and spinal stability. Even more concerning, there is a growing body ...

BACKGROUND An intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA) facilitates tracheal intubation with the neck in neutral position, which is similar to the neck position maintained by a rigid cervical collar. However, a cervical collar virtually obliterates neck movement, even small movements that normally facilitate airway insertion. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the ILMA will allow tracheal in...

In their commentary “Not Yet Time to Abandon Cervical Collars in Blunt Trauma”1 Baron and Scalea argue that since there are no randomized trials of cervical motion restriction we should “immobilize” place collars on (all?) blunt trauma patients until they arrive the hospital. These recommendations longer “standard care.” Prehospital providers have been safely clearing low-risk for decades.2, 3 ...

STUDY DESIGN In vitro biomechanical study. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of cervical collars and cervicothoracic orthoses for stabilizing clinically relevant, experimentally produced cervical spine injuries. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Most previous in vitro studies of cervical orthoses used a simplified injury model with all ligaments transected at a single spin...

Cervical radiculopathy is a disease process marked by nerve compression from herniated disk material or arthritic bone spurs. This impingement typically produces neck and radiating arm pain or numbness, sensory deficits, or motor dysfunction in the neck and upper extremities. Magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomographic myelography can confirm neurologic compression. The overall prognosis...

BACKGROUND Patients suffering head trauma are at high risk of having a concomitant cervical spine injury. A rigid cervical collar is usually applied to each patient until spinal stability is confirmed. Hard collars potentially cause venous outflow obstruction and are a nociceptive stimulus, which might elevate intracranial pressure (ICP). This study tested the hypothesis that application of a h...