Subaxial cervical spine injury classification system: is it most appropriate for classifying cervical injury?

The cervical spine injury represents a potential devastating disease with 6% associated in-hospital mortality (Jain et al., 2015). Neurological deterioration ranging from complete spinal cord injury (SCI) to incomplete SCI or single radiculopathy are potential consequences of the blunt trauma over this region. The subaxial cervical spine accounts the vast majority of cervical injuries, making up two thirds of all cervical fractures (Alday, 1996). Few classifications (Holdsworth, 1970; White et al., 1975; Allen et al., 1982; Denis, 1984; Vaccaro et al., 2007) have been proposed to describe injuries of the cervical spine for several reasons. First, to delineate the best treatment in each case; second, to determinate an accurate neurological prognosis, and third, to establish a standard way to communicate and describe specific characteristics of cervical injuries patterns. Classical systems are primarily descriptive and no single system has gained widespread use, largely because of restrictions in clinical relevance and its complexity.