Comparing the Efficacy of Long Spinal Board, Sked Stretcher, and Vacuum Mattress in Cervical Spine Immobilization; a Method-Oriented Experimental Study

Inadequate spinal motion restriction in patients suffering from spinal injuries could lead to further neuro-logical damage, ultimately worsening their prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of long spinal boards(LSB), ske stretcher, and vacuum mattress for cervical spine immobilization during transportation of patients by mea-suring the angular motion of the cervical spine following lifting, transferring, and tilting.

We conducted anexperimental study using a box of three randomizations and crossover designs without a washout period effect for thelong spinal board, sked stretcher, and vacuum mattress. We concealed the randomization with sequentially numbered,opaque, sealed envelopes (SNOSE). Kinematic data were collected using eight optoelectronic cameras at 200 Hz (BTSBioengineering, Milan, Italy) in triangular planes (lateral bending, flexion-extension, and axial rotation) while perform-ing all three motions (static lift-hold, transfer, and 90° tilt).

12 cases (7 males and 5 females) with the mean age of20 ± 3.03 (range: 18-28) years were studied. The three highest angular motions were observed in the axial rotation planeduring patient’s tilting under immobilization on all devices (Vacuum mattress having the highest value of 99.01±8.93,followed by the LSB at 89.89±34.35 and the sked stretcher at 86.30±7.73 degrees). During patient lifting, a higher angularmotion was observed with vacuum mattress immobilization in flexion extension (Coefficient = 4.45; 95%CI: 0.46 – 8.45;p =0.029) and axial rotation (Coefficient = 3.70; 95%CI: 0.58 – 6.81; p =0.020) planes. During patient transfer, a higher an-gular motion was observed with sked stretcher in the flexion-extension plane (Coefficient = 2.98; 95%CI: 0.11 – 5.84; p =0.042). During patient tilting to 90 degrees, a higher angular motion was observed with vacuum mattress immobilizationin lateral bending (Coefficient = -4.08; 95%CI: -7.68 - -0.48; p = 0.026) for the vacuum mattress.

Based onthe finding of the present study, patients on the vacuum mattress experience significantly higher angular motion in flex-ion extension and axial rotation during lifting, as well as lateral bending during 90-degree tilting. In addition, patientson the Sked stretcher showed significantly higher angular motion in flexion-extension during the transferring. However,the predictive margins for immobilization across all devices did not demonstrate clinically significant differences amongthe three immobilization devices.