The halo fixator may be used for the definitive treatment of cervical spine trauma, preoperative reduction in the patient with spinal deformity, and adjunctive postoperative stabilization following cervical spine surgery. Halo fixation decreases cervical motion by 30% to 96%. Absolute contraindications include cranial fracture, infection, and severe soft-tissue injury at the proposed pin sites....

STUDY DESIGN A retrospective administrative database analysis. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and characteristics of pediatric cervical spine injury (PCSI) utilizing the Kids' Inpatient Database (KID). SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA PCSI is debilitating, but comprehensive analyses have been difficult due to its rarity. There have been a few database studies on ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine frequency of improvement in anatomical alignment of cervical spine with skeletal traction in patients with cervical spine injury. METHODOLOGY: This retrospective observational study was conducted at neurosurgery department, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. The medical record of all cases from December 2010 to November 2011, in which cervical traction was applied for cerv...

Methods Thirty cases, previously treated according to the new algorithm, were presented to four spine surgeons who were questioned about their personal suggestion for treatment, and the treatment suggested according to the application of the algorithm. After four weeks, the same questions were asked again to evaluate reliability (intra- and inter-observer) using the Kappa index. Results The r...

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...

Fear of failure to identify cervical spine injury has led to extremely liberal use of radiography in patients with blunt trauma and remotely possible neck injury. A number of previous retrospective and small prospective studies have tried to address the question of whether any clinical criteria can identify patients, from among this group, at sufficiently low risk that cervical spine radiograph...

Cervical spine injury in pediatric trauma occurs rarely; however, there is significant potential for considerable morbidity when it does occur. Screening for cervical spine injuries has been shown to be most sensitive in adult trauma centers when combined with reliable physical examination findings. Because pediatric trauma patients suffer from a different range of injuries than adults, and oft...

A review of 35 cases of acute injury of the upper thoracic spine associated with paraplegia was done. In 32, a fracture-dislocation was present; in two, there was a dislocation without associated fracture; and in one, neither fracture nor dislocation was identified. A total of 22 cases conformed to a pattern of injury consisting of anterior fracture dislocation with disruption of the intervenin...

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 ...

There are many causes of paraspinal muscle weakness which give rise to the dropped-head syndrome. In the upper cervical spine the central portion of the spinal cord innervates the cervical paraspinal muscles. Dropped-head syndrome resulting from injury to the central spinal cord at this level has not previously been described. We report two patients who were treated acutely for this condition. ...