Internal and emergency medicine
-
Several guidelines on the evaluation of patients with suspected cervical spine trauma in the Emergency Department (ED) exist. High heterogeneity between different guidelines has been reported. Aim of this study was to find areas of agreement and disagreement between guidelines, to identify topics in which further research is needed and to provide an evidence-based cervical spine trauma algorithm for ED physicians. ⋯ The agreement between different guidelines and the evidence on which recommendations are based is low. An attempt to build an evidence-based algorithm has been made. More studies are needed on many topics.