Cervical Spine Injury caused by Head Injury

Hitting the head can cause a movement within the neck which leads to no obvious head injury but a broken neck due to sudden twisted movement etc.

C-spine investigation can be conducted if any of the following circumstances are true:

• Significant mechanism of injury (usually falls under the category of ‘trauma call’ patient where collision impact is high: fall from over 6ft etc)

• GCS less than 13 on initial assessment

• Any neck pain or tenderness in awake patient

• In any intubated patient or intoxicated patient with head injury (they cant say if they have neck pain or not)

• Any focal neurological deficit