New ACS TQP Spine Injury Guidelines

The American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Programs (ACS TQP) recently published updated practical guidelines on evaluation and management of adult patients with spinal injury. These guidelines were based on evidence based literature or expert consensuses in lieu of high quality evidence based research.

The new Spine Injury Best Practices Guidelines include prehospital management, such as immobilization, acute hospital management, such as cervical collar/activity restriction clearance, appropriate imaging, and injury classification, and sequelae management, such as issues related to prolonged hospital care for patients who experienced spine injury.

Finally, the guidelines also address the implementation of the Spine Injury Best Practices Guidelines into trauma center protocols. The entirety of these guidelines can be found here.