By Jon Graziani
Patient extrication should be a fluid process that efficiently and effectively removes an injured patient without causing further injury or harm to him or us--sounds easy enough, right? If your agency is like most, the "go/no-go" rule to perform advanced extrication is based primarily on using "sick/not sick" status and is significantly associated with patient entrapment. The fire service is great at making the right decisions as to when to be aggressive at removing vehicles from around and on top of the patients.
But what about the patients who are not sick but are complaining of significant neck and back pain? Not every motor vehicle accident (MVA) to which you respond will require advanced patient extrication techniques. In fact, most of the "routine" MVAs to which you respond result in patients complaining of minor to moderate neck and back pain with minimal vehicle damage.
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