Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for Spinal Cord Protection

Techniques for immobilization and extrication of the patient with a real or potential spine injury have been implemented for decades, albeit without high-quality evidence supporting their use.

Such techniques addressed well-intentioned concerns about inflicting further serious injury. However, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness or necessity of these techniques, and increasing evidence suggests that such interventions may be harmful.

Historic principles of out-of-hospital spinal injury care have been more influenced by medicolegal implications and untested theory than by clinical or scientific evidence