Table of Contents
What is a flexion-distraction injury?
Flexion-distraction injuries occur due to distractive forces causing disruption of the posterior and middle spinal columns. These fractures classically consist of a fracture line through the posterior bony elements; involvement of the posterior ligamentous complex is, however, common.
What is a distraction injury of the cervical spine?
Clinically, flexion-distraction injuries may present as a sprain of the cervical spinal ligaments, facet joint injury, unilateral or bilateral dislocation, perched facets, or unilateral facet fractures and contralateral dislocations. Several classifications of flexion-distraction injuries have been proposed.
What is a distracting injury?
The NEXUS study defined distracting painful injuries as injuries which are severe enough to distract the patient’s attention away from a second injury and may serve as markers of high energy trauma capable of producing multiple injuries.
What is a distracting injury EMT?
Distracting injury is part of the clinical assessment for CSI when using NEXUS criteria. It was vaguely defined in that study on purpose but is generally thought to include severe extremity fractures, degloving injuries, severe burns, etc.
What is distraction force?
A force applied to a body part to separate bony fragments or joint surfaces. [L. dis-traho, pp. – tractus, to pull in different directions]
What is distraction vertebrae?
Vertebral distraction is routinely performed during anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). This technique enhances surgical exposure for subsequent decompression and allows graft insertion1-4).
What is a distracting injury in nexus criteria?
NEXUS, a national, multicentered prospective study that included more than 34,000 patients, defined distracting injury as any of the following: a long-bone fracture; visceral injury requiring surgical consultation; large laceration; degloving or crush injury; large burns; any other injury producing acute functional …
Do Emts still use backboards?
The once-automatic use of long backboards to reduce spinal motion in patients transported by ambulance is now limited to a few patients for whom the equipment might provide some care.
What are the types of distraction?
Types of Distractions
- Ambient noise (passengers, crew, equipment)
- Noisy equipment due to malfunction.
- Active conversations with passengers and colleagues.
- Information overload from displays.
- Cell phone use (talking, texting, gaming, social media use)
- Mind wandering, rumination.
What is axial loading injury?
Most cervical spinal cord injuries are the result of axial loading (force directed through the top of the head and through the spine) forcing the head into hyperflexion and/or rotation. This type of mechanism may result in a fracture of dislocation of one or more of the cervical vertebrae.