Abstract
If a patient is seriously injured, damage to the spinal column or spinal cord should be suspected. Trauma of the spine or spinal cord should be considered with expected injury mechanism. The treating physician should perform appropriate imaging as soon as it is done safely. The mechanism of injury combined with the proposed clinical examination will determine the initial evaluation of the spinal column. The physician is equipped with both plain X-rays and computed tomography (CT) that can be used to evaluate the bony spine, and these tools should be used to rule in or rule out spinal column injury. The purpose of imaging the bony spine with radiographs is to provide a quick survey of the regional bony anatomy and to guide additional imaging, such as CT or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
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Ko, HY. (2019). Imaging Studies. In: Management and Rehabilitation of Spinal Cord Injuries. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7033-4_4
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