Abstract
Cervical spinal trauma occurs with high frequency. Despite its high frequency, the treatment of cervical trauma remains controversial. A primary determinant of surgical decision making is the degree of spinal instability present after the injury. Because this level of stability is difficult to determine, there are wide variations in the treatment of spine trauma. A number of classification systems have been developed, but none have been highly reliable orgained widespread acceptance. Despite this, a number of critical variables in medical decision making, including injury morphology, discoligamentous integrity, and neurological status, have been identified. The Subaxial Cervical Injury Classification (SLIC) system has been developed to define these critical variables and, through a severity score, provide guidelines for treatment.
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Patel, A.A. (2010). Cervical Spinal Stability and Decision Making. In: Patel, V., Burger, E., Brown, C. (eds) Spine Trauma. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03694-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03694-1_1
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