Plain Radiography Does Not Add Any Clinically Significant Advantage to Multidetector Row Computed Tomography in Diagnosing Cervical Spine Injuries in Blunt Trauma Patients

BACKGROUND: Cervical spine (c-spine) injuries (CSI) in trauma patients are common and potentially catastrophic. Numerous guidelines involving clinical and radiologic criteria have been devised to diagnose such injuries. It is not clear whether using plain X-ray films in addition to helical computed tomography (CT) provides any additional benefit in trauma patients who require radiologic clearance of their c-spine. We hypothesized that three …