Study Design Case series. Objective We report the unusual occurrence of vertebral artery injury (VAI) during routine posterior exposure of the cervical spine. The importance of preoperative planning to identify the course of the bilateral vertebral arteries during routine posterior cervical spine surgery is emphasized. Methods VAI is a rare but potentially devastating complication of cervical s...

The craniovertebral junction (CVJ) comprises the occiput, atlas, and axis and is visible in most magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies of the brain. Craniometric measurements used in radiologic assessment of CVJ anomalies include the Chamberlain line, Wackenheim clivus baseline, Welcher basal angle, and atlantooccipital joint axis angle. Most anomalies of the occiput are associated with decre...

Goldenhar syndrome is a well-known condition featuring the following triad of anomalies: ocular abnormalities, microtia and vertebral anomalies. This syndrome involves structures arising from the first and second branchial arches. Craniofacial anomalies, including mandibular, zygomatic and/or maxillary hypoplasias are found in 50% of patients with Goldenhar syndrome. Patients with this syndrome...

VACTERL association [3] is a term applied to a specific group of abnormalities involving structures derived from the mesoderm [4]. Although the defects of this disorder are clearly linked, VACTERL is called an association rather than a syndrome because the exact genetic cause is unknown. ?VACTERL? is an acronym, each letter standing for one of the defects associated with the condition: V for ve...

A single heat shock, given to 2-day-old chick embryos, can generate multiple but discrete somite and skeletal anomalies. Each of these anomalies is restricted to one, or at the most two, consecutive segments. The anomalies are separated from each other by a distance of 6-7 somites or vertebrae, or a multiple of this distance. These results argue against the 'clock and wavefront' model; while th...