Assessment of Traumatic Axial Cervical Spine Injuries

Traumatic Axial Cervical Spine Injuries

Abstract

Background: To assess traumatic axial cervical spine injuries in 84 patients. Subjects and Methods: Eighty- four patients with traumatic axial cervical spine injuries of either gender were enrolled. Magnetic imaging resonance (MRI) was performed in all. Conservative treatment was given to those with minimal no bony injuries with or without spinal cord contusion and decompression and fixation was performed in moderate to severe bony injuries with compression of spinal cord. Patients were treated for anterior fixation i.e., corpectomy with either autologous bone graft or with titanium cage and plate fixation and with corpectomy with tricorticate graft. Results: Out of 84 patients, males comprised 54 (64.2%) and females had 30 (35.8%). Aetiology in present found to be assault in 9, road traffic accident in 48, sports injury in 17 and work place injury in 10 cases. Body fracture was evident in 24 and ligamentous injury in 60 patients. Type of body fractures was C3 in 3, C4 in 2, C5 in 12, C6 in 3 and C7 in 4 patients. Management performed was corpectomy with tricorticate graft in 26 cases and corpectomy with fixation with titanium cage and plate/screws in 58 cases.  Conclusion: Discoligamentous was major type of injury and road traffic accident was main cause of injury among patients with subaxial cervical spine injuries.