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Head injury - Management
Basis for recommendation
These recommendations are based on the clinical guidance Head injury: triage, assessment, investigation and early management of head injury in infants, children and adults, produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care, and commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) [National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care, 2007]. It can be downloaded from www.nice.org.uk (pdf).
Neck stabilization
- The recommendation for neck stabilization for people with head injury prior to hospital transfer includes the Canadian Cervical Spine Rule for selecting people with cervical spine damage for imaging. Whilst the Canadian rules were derived and validated on people older than 16 years of age, they have a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI 98 to 100) and a specificity of 42% (95% CI 40 to 44) for identifying clinically significant injuries [Bandiera et al, 2003].
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