Hi,
While I am eager to become an official Google Researcher, Google is
currently not accepting new candidates. However, since I am very
interested in medical topics, I thought I would independently do some
research on your question, and convey to you my findings. (If this
information is helpful, please let me know, and perhaps Google will
acknowledge my work as well, as a lead into an official Researcher
position!)
At the following link, I found a very informative review article,
(2001), from The Section of Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral
Nerves of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the
Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
It is titled Pre-Hospital Cervical Spinal Immobilization Following
Trauma, and appears in PDF format.
http://www.spineuniverse.com/pdf/traumaguide/1.pdf
This review discusses the use and effectiveness of pre-hospital spinal
immobilization, i.e. whether immobilization is necessary for ALL
trauma patients, as well as the effectiveness of existing
immobilization techniques and devices.
In terms of your specific questions, on page one of the document, it
quotes the following statistics: It is estimated that 3% to 25% of
spinal cord injuries occur after the initial traumatic insult, either
during transit or early in the course of management. Multiple cases of
poor outcome from mishandling of cervical spinal injuries have been
reported. As many as 20% of spinal column injuries involve multiple
non-continuous vertebral levels, therefore the entire spinal column is
potentially at risk.
Regarding you first question, on page 14, it its discussion evaluating
immobilization techniques/devices, the following is stated: Finally,
the traditional method of moving a patient onto a long backboard has
typically involved the logroll maneuver. The effectiveness of this
transfer technique has been questioned. Significant lateral motion of
the lumbar spine has been reported to occur. Alternatives to the
logroll maneuver include the HAINES method and the multihand or
fireman lift method.
In each of the above cases, several references are cited, which of
course appear at the end of the document.
From the PubMed (medline) website, I found 4 related articles (I had
access only to the abstracts). They were from 2003 and 2004, and the
research concerned comparisons of spine-board transfer techniques, the
log roll included. You can find these references at the following
link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=pubmed
If you would like me to do some more research, I'd be happy to to. Let me know!
Also, if you found my work helpful, please alert Google staff, and thanks. |
