Study Of Neck Injuries In Children (SONIC)

Abstract

This study aims to externally validate existing international adult and paediatric clinical decision rules (CDRs) designed to guide emergency clinician imaging decisions in a large cohort of Australian and New Zealand children presenting with suspected cervical spine injury. It aims to assess (i) their accuracy in detecting cervical spine injury (CSI) (ii) their ability to accurately identify children who do not need cervical spine imaging and (iii) their cost-effectiveness. An exploratory analysis of the data will also be conducted to determine whether a new paediatric CDR can be derived and validated to improve accurate detection of CSI and/or risk stratification of children with suspected CSI into those who do and do not require imaging. This study is expected to identify the most child appropriate CDR. The epidemiology and outcomes of CSI in this cohort of children will also be described.