[Cervical spine trauma in the era of choosing wisely: less immobilization and no cervical collars]

In the 1950s and 60s, the imprudent handling of trauma patients with suspected cervical spine injury resulted in a number of reported cases of neurological deterioration during management. This led to promote the systematic immobilization of patients using rigid devices such as rigid cervical collars and spineboards. Today, this practice is being challenged and those tools are reevaluated, and some situations simply abandoned. Beginning of the 21st century, new scores allowed, initially in the emergency department, and then in recent years in prehospital setting, to select which trauma patients deserved to be X-rayed and by extension immobilized.