Society guideline links: Cervical spine injury

Introduction — This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately. (See "Society guideline links: Thoracic and lumbar spine injury in adults" and "Society guideline links: General issues of trauma management in adults" and "Society guideline links: Thoracic trauma" and "Society guideline links: Increased intracranial pressure and moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury".)

International

●A clinical practice guideline for the management of patients with acute spinal cord injury (2017)

•Recommendations on the role of baseline magnetic resonance imaging in clinical decision making and outcome prediction

•Recommendations on the timing (≤24 hours versus >24 hours) of decompressive surgery

•Recommendations on the type and timing of anticoagulant thromboprophylaxis

•Recommendations on the type and timing of rehabilitation

•Recommendations on the use of methylprednisolone sodium succinate

Canada

●Choosing Wisely Canada: Don't order neck radiographs in patients who have a negative examination using the Canadian C-spine rules (updated 2021)

●Trauma Association of Canada: National pediatric cervical spine evaluation pathway – Consensus guidelines (2011)

United States

●American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Programs (ACS TQP): Best practice guidelines – Spine injury (2022)

●American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG): Committee opinion for obstetric management of patients with spinal cord injuries (2020)

●Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS): A modified Delphi consensus study for updated return-to-play recommendations for collision athletes after cervical spine injury (2020)

●Pediatric Cervical Spine Clearance Working Group (PCSCWG): A consensus statement and algorithm on pediatric cervical spine clearance (2019)

●Wilderness Medical Society (WMS): Clinical practice guidelines for spinal cord protection (2019)

●American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma, and National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP): Joint policy statement on spinal motion restriction in the trauma patient (2018)

●American College of Radiology (ACR): ACR Appropriateness Criteria for suspected spine trauma (revised 2018)

●ACR: ACR Appropriateness Criteria on suspected spine trauma – Child (2018)

●Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST): Practice management guideline on prehospital spine immobilization/spinal motion restriction in penetrating trauma (2018)

●EAST: Practice management guideline on cervical spine collar clearance in the obtunded adult blunt trauma patient (2015)

●WMS: Practice guidelines for spine immobilization in the austere environment, update (2014)

●American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS): Guidelines for the management of acute cervical spine and spinal cord injuries (2013)

•Clinical assessment following acute cervical spinal cord injury

•Deep venous thrombosis and thromboembolism in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries  

•Initial closed reduction of cervical spinal fracture – Dislocation injuries

•Management of acute combination fractures of the atlas and axis in adults

•Management of acute traumatic central cord syndrome (ATCCS)

•Management of isolated fractures of the atlas in adults

•Management of isolated fractures of the axis in adults

•Management of pediatric cervical spine and spinal cord injuries

•Management of vertebral artery injuries following non-penetrating cervical trauma  

•Nutritional support after spinal cord injury  

•Occipital condyle fractures

•Os odontoideum

•Pharmacological therapy for acute spinal cord injury

•Prehospital cervical spinal immobilization after trauma

•Radiographic assessment

•Spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality (SCIWORA)  

•Subaxial cervical spine injury classification systems

•The acute cardiopulmonary management of patients with cervical spinal cord injuries

•The diagnosis and management of traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation injuries

•Transportation of patients with acute traumatic cervical spine injuries

•Treatment of subaxial cervical spinal injuries

●National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA): Position statement for the acute management of the cervical spine-injured athlete (2009)

United Kingdom

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Interventional procedures guidance on intramuscular diaphragm stimulation for ventilator-dependent chronic respiratory failure from high spinal cord injuries (2023)

●British Orthopaedic Association (BOA): Standard on cervical spine clearance in the trauma patient (2021)

●Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM): Position statement on paediatric trauma – Stabilisation of the cervical spine (2019)

●NICE: Guideline on spinal injury – Assessment and initial management (2016)

●BOA: Standards for trauma (BOAST) on spinal clearance in the trauma patient (2015)

●BOA: Standards for trauma on the management of traumatic spinal cord injury (2015)

●NICE: Interventional procedures guidance on direct C1 lateral mass screw for cervical spine stabilization (2005)

Australia–New Zealand

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Don't request imaging of the cervical spine in trauma patients, unless indicated by a validated clinical decision rule (2015)

Japan

●[In English] Clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of lower urinary tract dysfunction in patients with spinal cord injury (2020)

●[In Japanese] Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine (JARM): Japanese guidelines for pulmonary rehabilitation of neuromuscular disease and spinal cord injury (2014)