Volume 30, Issue 167, January 2026

Management of Traumatic Neck Injury and Ways of Management in the ED Setting

Mazi Mohammed Alanazi¹, Maram Saad Alshahrani², Noura Ali Alshahrani²

¹Saudi and Jordanian Board Emergency Medicine, Emergency Department, Head of Emergency Research Unit, First Health Cluster, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
²Saudi Board Emergency Medicine Resident, Aseer health cluster, Aseer, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Neck trauma is a significant presentation in the emergency department. A catastrophic neck injury affect critical tissues, including the airway, digestive tract, and carotid and vertebral arteries. Emergency doctors should be equipped to detect and manage concealed and delayed manifestations of damage associated with neck trauma. This supplement examines advancements and optimal methodologies in the assessment and treatment of patients with cervical injuries. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using original studies selected from electronic databases. Eligible articles studied ED diagnostic pathways and management of traumatic neck injury and detected a need for operative intervention, complications, blunt cerebrovascular injury detection, stroke, and mortality. Results: we include ten studies include both penetrating and blunt mechanisms. Penetrating neck injury studies advice strategies based on clinical signs and investigations, mandatory exploration was associated with high rates of negative operations in previous studies. Clinical examination show high negative predictive value for injuries requiring repair. For blunt trauma, CTA-based screening identified BCVI that missed by risk-factor criteria alone, and pediatric studies show variationin performance of screening rules. Some of the included studies show the importance of early airway planning in laryngeal trauma. Conclusion: Rapid airway control and CTA guided evaluation should be the priority in ED management to support detection of vascular and aero digestive injuries and minimize unnecessary surgery.

Keywords: Penetrating neck trauma, Traumatic neck injury, blunt neck trauma, emergency department, computed tomography angiography

Medical Science, 2026, 30, e17ms3812

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v30i167.e17ms3812

Published: 29 January 2026