Development of a New Emergency Medicine Spinal Immobilization Protocol for Pediatric Trauma Patients and First Applicability Test on Emergency Medicine Personnel.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to (i) develop a protocol that supports decision making for prehospital spinal immobilization in pediatric trauma patients based on evidence from current scientific literature and (ii) perform an applicability test on emergency medicine personnel.

Methods: A structured search of the literature published between 1980 and 2019 was performed in MEDLINE using PubMed. Based on this literature search, a new Emergency Medicine Spinal Immobilization Protocol for pediatric trauma patients (E.

[Development and first application testing of a new protocol for preclinical spinal immobilization in children : Assessment of indications based on the E.M.S. IMMO Protocol Pediatric].

Background: To protect the spine from secondary damage, spinal immobilization is a standard procedure in prehospital trauma management. Immobilization protocols aim to support emergency medicine personnel in quick decision making but predominantly focus on the adult spine; however, trauma mechanisms and injury patterns in adults differ from those in children and applying adult prehospital immobilization protocols to pediatric patients may be insufficient. Adequate protocols for children with spinal injuries are currently unavailable.