Clearing the spine of the unconscious traumatised patient is a task that the intensive care clinician faces frequently. Technological advances in cross-sectional imaging are such that the cervical and thoraco-lumbar spine can now be cleared quickly and reliably in a single computerised tomography imaging session, which all trauma patients require, with no extra exposure to radiation. This results in less patient manipulation and should reduce the time to cessation of unnecessary spinal precautions which themselves can lead to patient harm. Such head-to-toe inclusive ‘traumagrams’ are the standard of care received by casualties presenting at western military medical facilities in Afghanistan.
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