Improving mortality for cervical spine fracture

In the UK, the population is rapidly ageing. One in four people will be aged 65 or over by 2040. The fastest growing age group are those over 85 years.1 As a consequence, the demographics of patients presenting to emergency departments is also changing rapidly. The proportion of major trauma patients aged over 75 years has risen sharply from 8.1 to 26.9% between 1990 and 2013.2 These projections suggest that those aged over 75 years will soon represent the single largest group of patients suffering major trauma.2 Low level falls (2 Fractures of the upper cervical spine in elderly patients