Exacerbating cervical spine injury by applying a hard collar

British Medical Journal, July 17, 1999 by Marios C Papadopoulos, Aabir Chakraborty, Georgina Waldron, B Anthony Bell

[7] Dodd FM, Simon E, McKeown D, Patrick MR. The effect of a cervical collar on the tidal volume of anaesthetised adult patients. Anaesthesia 1995;50:961-3.

[8] Houghton DJ, Curley JW. Dysphagia caused by a hard cervical collar. Br J Neurosurg 1996;10:501-2.

[9] Podolsky SM, Hoffman JR, Pietrafesa CA. Neurologic complications following immobilization of cervical spine fracture in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis. Ann Emerg Med 1983;12:578-80.

[10] Althoff B, Goldie IF. Cervical collars in rheumatoid atlanto-axial subluxation: a radiographic comparison. Ann Rheum Dis 1980;39:485-9.

[11] Curran C, Dietrich AM, Bowman MJ, Ginn-Pease ME, King DR, Kosnik E. Pediatric cervical-spine immobilization: achieving neutral position? J Trauma 1995;39:729-32.

(Accepted 3 December 1998)

Department of Neurosurgery, Atkinson Morley's Hospital, London SW20 ONE

Marios C Papadopoulos, registrar

Aabir Chakraborty, senior house officer

Georgina Waldron, senior house officer

B Anthony Bell, professor

Correspondence to: Professor Bell

BMJ 1999;319:171-2

Contributors: MCP reviewed the literature, wrote the paper after discussion with other authors, produced figures 1 and 2, and contributed to figure 3. AC had the original idea, discussed core ideas, and contributed relevant parts from the ATLS manual. GW contributed core ideas and helped design figure 3. BAB revised the text, discussed core ideas, contributed figure 3, produced references 2 and 3, and provided expert knowledge on ankylosing spondylitis.