PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lawrence, Christopher
AU  - Radmard, Mahla
AU  - Tafazolimoghadam, Armin
AU  - Amoah, Akua Afrah
AU  - Lakhani, Dhairya A.
AU  - Azadi, Javad
AU  - Chanmugam, Arjun
AU  - Yousem, David M.
TI  - Relationship of Mechanism of Injury to Asymptomatic Cervical Spine Fractures in the Elderly
AID  - 10.3174/ajnr.A8542
DP  - 2025 Apr 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 820--822
VI  - 46
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/46/4/820.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/46/4/820.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2025 Apr 01; 46
AB  - The Canadian Cervical Spine Rule, a clinical decision-making tool for patients post-trauma, is often interpreted as recommending cervical spine CT in patients ≥65 years old, who sustain a dangerous mechanism of injury, and/or have extremity paresthesias. We retrospectively reviewed 6 years’ of emergency department cervical spine CT reports to determine fracture rates in patients ≥65, symptomatic or not, who did and did not have a dangerous mechanism. Of those ≥65 years old, 240 of 13,925 (1.72%) patients had cervical spine fractures. The fracture rate in asymptomatic patients ≥65 was 0.27%. The fracture rate in asymptomatic patients ≥65, who did not have a dangerous mechanism of injury was 0.15%. The rate of unstable fractures requiring surgery was 0.007%. The findings suggest that the algorithm to scan asymptomatic patients ≥65, and/or those ≥65 without a dangerous injury mechanism, should be revisited for appropriateness and overall value.CCRCanadian Cervical Spine RuleCSCTcervical spine CTEDemergency departmentEMRelectronic medical recordEMSemergency medical serviceMVCmotor vehicle collision