Injuries to the cervical spine are quite commonly found in traffic accidents. The mechanisms of injury to the cervical spine are not fully understood, because the human cervical spine is an anatomically complex structure, subjected to a variety of loading conditions in an accident. A mathematical model of the cervical spine will be a valuable tool in the study and understanding of the mechanica...

OBJECTIVES Some trauma patients have an undiagnosed cervical spine injury but require immediate airway control. This paper reports an emergency department's (ED) experience with these patients. In particular, is there a worse neurological outcome? METHODS A retrospective study over 6.5 years, based on prospectively collected data from the Royal Perth Hospital trauma registry. Patients with a ...

BACKGROUND Radiographic parameters to evaluate the cervical spine in adult deformity using 36-inch films have been proposed. While 36-inch films are used to evaluate spinal deformity, dedicated cervical films are more commonly used to evaluate cervical spine pathology. The purpose of this study is to determine correlations between sagittal measures from a dedicated cervical spine radiographs an...

Cervical spine injuries are rarely seen in children with an overall incidence of about 1-1.5% [1,2]. In pediatric cervical spine injury, the upper cervical spine is the most common site affected (52% of cases) [2]. The typical injury mechanisms for pediatric cervical spine injuries are hyper flexion movements as in motor vehicle accidents, because of distinct anatomic properties of a child’s bo...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cervical ribs are congenital variants that are known to cause TOS or brachial plexopathy in up to 10% of the affected individuals. We investigated how often cervical ribs are present on cervical spine CT scans to determine the incidence in humans and the percentage of reported cervical ribs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cervical spine CT scans and the reports of 3404 consecuti...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Acute cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) has been observed in some patients after a minor trauma to the cervical spine. The discrepancy between the severity of the trauma and the clinical symptoms has been attributed to spinal canal stenosis. However, to date, there is no universally established radiological parameter for identifying critical spinal stenosis in these patients....

Introduction Cervical spine abnormalities can affect the ear vessels and or nerves with different mechanisms. Ear dysfunctions following cervical spine injuries can be manifested as hearing loss, vertigo, or tinnitus. Usually, cervical spine injuries can cause pain and Range of Motion (ROM) limitation. The major objective of this study was to determine which cervical ROM limitation was accompan...

Injury to the cervical cord is common but may be overlooked The first important requirement in managing any patient with an injury to the cervical spine is to make the diagnosis: failure to do this in a patient with traumatic spinal instability may lead to increased neurological deficit. In one large series of such injuries the diagnosis was missed in the accident and emergency department in on...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to characterize cervical cord, root, and bony spine claims in the American Society of Anesthesiologists Closed Claims database to formulate hypotheses regarding mechanisms of injury. METHODS All general anesthesia claims (1970-2007) in the Closed Claims database were searched to identify cervical injuries. Three independent teams, each consisting of an ane...

STANDARDS There is insufficient evidence to support treatment standards. GUIDELINES There is insufficient evidence to support treatment guidelines. OPTIONS All trauma patients with a cervical spinal column injury or with a mechanism of injury having the potential to cause cervical spine injury should be immobilized at the scene and during transport by using one of several available methods....