The initial management of the polytrauma patient follows the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) practice of airway and cervical spine control, breathing and circulation. Assessment of injuries takes place initially in the form of a primary survey, during which time life-threatening injuries are excluded. This is followed by a secondary survey when a more detailed assessment of injuries is carr...

The aim of this study was to define the influence of whiplash injury on cervical spine stability. The study involved 72 patients who had suffered from sprain injury to cervical spine of 0⁰-III⁰ according to QTF. To verify the results the authors examined the control group whose representatives have never suffered from any cervical spine injury and met all the exclusion criteria. Conventional pl...

The upper cervical esophagus is exerted on swallowing and peristalsis by somatic and visceral motoneurons, whereas the lower esophagus is exerted on only peristalsis by visceral motoneurons. We examined the origin of the esophageal motoneurons and whether there were any differences between the distributions of the upper and the lower esophageal motoneurons in the medulla and the spinal cord usi...

Axial forces were applied between the shoulders and the skull of eight male Macaca mulatta monkeys. Forces from 556 to 1444 Newtons produced marked changes in blood pressure, heart rate and distraction of the cervical spinal column with minimal ligamentous disruption. Somatosensory evoked potentials recorded at the cortical and thalamic levels following dorsal column or peripheral nerve stimula...

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is currently considered the definitive surgical treatment for symptomatic single-level degenerative disc disease (DDD) of the cervical spine. The goals of ACDF are to relieve pressure on the spinal nerves (decompression) and to restore spinal column alignment and stability. Resolution of pain and neurological symptoms may be expected in more than 8...

BACKGROUND Discography has been widely used in the lumbar and cervical spine as a diagnostic tool to identify sources of discogenic pain that may be amenable to surgical treatment. Discography in the cervical spine is currently performed without the benefit of pressure monitoring, and corresponding pressure parameters have not been determined. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develo...

Injury to the thoracic duct during anterior cervical spine surgery is a rare occurrence. A delayed chyle leak following an elective anterior cervical spinal surgery has not been reported in the literature. We present a report of a 59-year-old female with multiple prior neck surgeries who underwent an anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF). The patient developed a delayed thoracic duct i...

Figure 1. Cervical spine CT demonstrates normal alignment without fracture in a patient who experienced a minor hyperflexion injury. Each year in the United States and Canada, more than 13 million patients are treated for injuries that put them at risk of injury to the cervical spine. Few of these patients have a cervical spine fracture or other serious injury to the neck. It has been common pr...