Comparison of CT and MRI findings for cervical spine clearance in obtunded patients without high impact trauma
Introduction
Cervical spine assessment and clearance is a priority in patients with suspected with cervical spine trauma due to potential devastating neurological deficits that can result from cervical spine injuries. There are well-established guidelines for cervical clearance in patients who are fully awake (Glasgow coma scale [GCS] = 15) with a reliable neurological exam, as described in the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS) criteria and Canadian C-Spine (cervical-spine) Rule (CCR) [1]. Cervical spine clearance can however be challenging in obtunded patients with GCS of 14 or less and is a matter of great conjecture. Obtunded patients with suspected cervical spine injury are usually kept in rigid collars for cervical immobilization. Prolonged use of rigid collar is not only associated with increased incidence of pressure ulcers and intracranial pressure (ICP) elevation [2], [3], [4], but also presents challenges for oral hygiene, airway management and daily nursing care. Thus, safe and timely removal of cervical collars in obtunded patients has important clinical implications. With increased availability of high-resolution multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT), there have been reports of using MDCT alone for clearance of cervical spine in patients with blunt trauma who have non-focal examinations. The advantages of it being wider availability of CT, quick scan time and high sensitivity in detecting bony abnormalities such as acute fractures. However, many studies have shown that CT alone can miss clinically significant soft tissue injuries [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], especially in patients with high impact trauma. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is highly sensitive in detecting soft tissue and ligamentous injuries but is much more time intensive and is not as readily available compared to CT. Even with technological advances with dramatic improvement in quality and resolution of CT, there is contradictory evidence in the value of CT alone for cervical spine clearance in obtunded patients [5], [7], [8], [9], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. Hence various studies have evaluated the role of CT alone or in conjunction with single upright radiographs or MRI to clear cervical spine injury in obtunded patients. While negative CT and MRI in obtunded patients have a very high degree of specificity in clearing the cervical spine, the value of a positive MRI is poorly understood and can be redundant leading to retaining the collar for longer periods due to lack of well defined criteria for instability on MRI with its very high sensitivity for detecting soft tissue trauma not necessarily ligamentous with undetermined clinical significance [16]. There is no universally accepted protocol regarding the cervical spine clearance in obtunded patients without history high impact trauma and the data on whether a negative CT alone is enough to clear cervical spine in this subgroup of patients is lacking. This clinical scenario is commonly encountered in many neruointensive care units (NICUs), where patients are admitted with being obtunded following some intracranial pathology and either have a fall secondary to that or are reported as “found down” with not even a witnessed history of trauma. These patients arrive in cervical collar to the NICU where neurosurgeons are often consulted for cervical spine clearance by the neurologists and neurointensivists. Given many of these patients have altered level of alertness with concurrent intracranial pathologies (subarachnoid hemorrhage [SAH], intracerebral hemorrhage [ICH], subdural hemorrhage [SDH]), they often do not cooperative fully for adequate and accurate assessment of strength or sensation or are not even conscious secondarily to the intracranial injury. While the absence of significance trauma makes the probability of cervical spine injury unlikely, theoretically increasing the negative predictive value of a negative CT scan, their intracranial pathologies often produce neurological deficits that cannot be clearly distinguished from possible cervical spine injury. Given above reasons, many of these patients ended up getting MRI for the purpose of cervical spine clearance.
At our institution, we receive a significant number of patients from other institutions with the diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage (primarily SAH, ICH, and SDH). Many of these patients arrive with cervical collars due to history of “fall” or “found down” with no history of high impact trauma and have unreliable neurological exams. It is the routine practice of the neurointensivists at our institution to image the cervical spines of such individuals which often involves CT and MRI. We initiated this study to focus on this subgroup of patients to evaluate and compare the cervical CT and MRI findings.
Section snippets
Methods
Electronic medical record database at RUSH University Medical Center, Chicago, IL was queried for patients admitted to the NICU with the diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage and concomitant history of minor cervical spine trauma most commonly ground level fall between January 2008 and December 2010. The study group primarily consisted of patients with SAH, ICH or SDH with history of “ground level fall” or “found down” and have unreliable neurological exams. Those who underwent both CT (Siemens,
Results
Eighty-three patients were identified from the computer database using our search criteria. Twenty-eight (33.73%) patients had pathologies identified on both CT and MRI (Group I); four patients (4.82%) had a negative CT but had positive finding on MRI (Group II); fifty-one patients (61.44%) had both negative CT and MRI (Group III). Results are summarized in Table 1.
All patients in Group I required either surgical stabilization or continuation of rigid cervical orthosis. All four patients in
Discussion
NEXUS and Eastern Association of the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) guidelines have been well-established and are standards for cervical spine clearance in patients who are awake, alert and cooperative with neurological exam. The NEXUS criteria have a sensitivity of 99.9% in detecting significant cervical injuries [1]. However, cervical spine clearance in obtunded patients (GCS of 14 or less) has been a persistent topic of debate. No universally accepted guidelines exist for this group of patients.
Conclusion
CT is a very useful imaging modality in evaluation cervical spine in obtunded patients with unreliable neurological exams. A negative high-quality CT scan is very reassuring and in the absence of high impact trauma as is seen in this patient population seems adequate for cervical spine clearance. Performance of routine MRI in this subgroup of patients without history of high impact trauma seems redundant following a negative high quality CT scan and may be avoided for the purpose of cervical
Funding
None.
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