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From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places when we believe they hit the mark on an issue. We wanted to bring attention to these recommendations compiled by Alexander R. Vaccaro MD, PhD and Gregory D. Schroeder, MD and others at the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS) meeting in New York City. This article recently appeared in Neurosurgery, the official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, which publishes research on clinical and experimental neurosurgery covering the very latest developments in science, technology and medicine.

In October of 2020, Neurosurgery published “Updated Return-to-Play Recommendations for Collision Athletes After Cervical Spine Injury: A Modified Delphi Consensus Study With the Cervical Spine Research Society,” which provides consensus statements reached through formal survey methodology on managing football athletes with traumatic neck injuries.

According to a recent Rothman Orthopaedic Institute press release, author Dr. Vaccaro stated, “our study provides the consensus expert opinion of spine surgeons with experience treating neck injuries in collision athletes, especially American football. The topic is controversial, and randomized trials are impractical. Our results deliver updated recommendations from over 100 surgeons, and also highlights persistent areas of controversy.”

To read the full Neurosurgery article, click here.

Editor’s Note: We encourage everyone to join the conversation online by using the hashtag #Spine.

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