FRIDAY, Sept. 23, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with cervical spine injuries may harbor additional spinal damage not visible on regular X-rays, a new UCLA study finds.
The study, published in the September issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, contradicts the common wisdom that patients with certain forms of spinal injuries are at low risk of additional injuries and, therefore, were only evaluated with plain X-rays and CT scans.
In their study, researchers reviewed cases from the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) and found that X-rays failed to detect secondary injuries in 81 of the 224 patients identified with cervical spine injuries (36 percent).
"These findings are significant because they suggest that CT imaging, which allows physicians to view the spine in much greater detail, is necessary in evaluating all patients who have radiographic evidence of cervical spine injuries," lead researcher Dr. William Mower, a professor of emergency medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
"We found that even among patients with low-risk injuries, more than one-third sustained secondary damage that was not diagnosed by plain radiography," he added.
Based on the findings, the researchers advise that patients with any evidence of cervical spine injuries undergo CT imaging of the entire cervical spine to determine whether secondary injuries are present, and to identify non-contiguous injuries.
More information
To learn more about spinal cord injuries, visit the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
