Canadian C-Spine Rule

Investigator: Ian Stiell

Summary: The cervical spine rule will permit physicians to standardize care of alert, stable trauma patients, to rapidly "clear" the cervical spine, and to be much more selective in the use of cervical spine radiography without jeopardizing patient care. Recently validated at nine Canadian sites and now the subject of a large CIHR-funded implementation study. The physician's dataform used in the validation study is available for review.

Available in several formats here.

References:

• Clement CM, Stiell IG, Davies B, O’Connor A, Brehaut JC, Sheehan P, Clavet T, Leclair C, MacKenzie T, Beland C. Perceived Facilitators and Barriers to Clinical Clearance of the Cervical Spine by Emergency Department Nurses: A Major Step Towards Changing Practice in the Emergency Department. Intl Emerg Nursing J doi:10.1016/j.ienj.2009.12.002 (epub ahead of print).
  
  
• Stiell IG, Clement CM, O’Connor A, Davies B, Leclair C, Sheehan P, Clavet T, Beland C, MacKenzie T, Wells GA. Multicenter Prospective Validation of the Canadian C-Spine Rule by Emergency Department Triage Nurses. CMAJ. 2010 Aug 10;182(11):1173-9. Epub 2010 May 10.
  
  
• Stiell IG, Clement CM, Grimshaw J, Brison R, Rowe BH, Schull MJ, Lee J, Brehaut J, McKnight D, Eisenhauer MA, Dreyer J, Letovsky E, Rutledge T, MacPhail I, Ross S, Perry JJ, Holroyd BR, Ip U, Lesiuk H, Wells GA. Implementation of the Canadian C-Spine Rule: A Prospective 12-Centre Cluster Randomized Trial. British Medical Journal 2009. BMJ. 2009 Oct 29;339:b4146.
  
  
• Stiell IG, Clement CM, McKnight RD, Brison R, Schull MJ, Rowe BH, et al. The Canadian C-Spine Rule versus the NEXUS low-risk criteria in patients with trauma. New Engand Journal of Medicine. 2003. 349:2510-2518.
  
  
• Stiell IG, Wells GA, Vandemheen KL, Clement CM, Lesiuk H, De Maio VJ, et al. The Canadian Cervical Spine Radiography Rule for alert and stable trauma patients. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2001. 286:1841-1848.