Unless physicians are diligent, spinal-cord injuries are hard to diagnose in children -- and if such injuries are not diagnosed early the consequences can be devastating, said study leader Dr. Harsh Grewal, a pediatric surgeon at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital in Philadelphia.

Grewal and colleagues reviewed 10 years of medical literature on motor vehicle accidents and children, and found that children in car accidents who were inappropriately belted were at higher risk for "seat-belt syndrome" -- injuries to the spine and abdomen.

Following a motor vehicle accident, a child or adolescent should receive an evaluation that includes a complete work-up for vertebral, spinal cord and intra-abdominal injuries, the study suggested.

The study is published in the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine.