Clinician’s Corner: The Canadian Cervical Spine Rule

Abstract

A 44-year-old driver of a small sedan self-presents to your emergency department (ED) triage area indicating they developed a stiff neck 30 minutes after they were rear-ended by a small van when they were stopped at a traffic light. The rear bumper of the patient’s vehicle is slightly dented, and there is scuffing to the front bumper of the van. No airbags were deployed and the driver of the sedan did not hit their head. The van was estimated to be travelling between 10-20 km/h at the time of impact. The patient self-extricated from their vehicle and was ambulatory at the scene. Currently, the patient is alert, oriented, and in no distress. The patient denies paresthesia, has no midline cervical spine (c-spine) tenderness, and is able to actively rotate their neck 45° left and right.