Fracture and Dislocation of Cervical Spine

Seo, Kwang Yoon; Kim, Byung Jik; Lee, Young Koo; Hong, Yoon Pyo; Park, Joo Wan

Abstract

There was increasing tendency to stabilize unstable cervical spine injuries surgically with the benefit of good stability of the spine, easy nursing care, early mobilization and therefore early rehabilitation. A clinical study was performed on 47 patients with fractures and dislocations of the cervical spine treated at the department of orthopedic surgery, Inje Medical College, Paik Hospital from Jan. 1975 to Dec. 1981. Following is the summery of the our findings. 1. The prevalent age distribution was between 3rd and 6th decade and the ratio between males and females was 10:1. The most common cause of injuries was automobile accident (70%). 2. The most common site of the injuries was C5-6 (34%) and the most frequent mechanism of injury was flexion-rotation type (47%). 3. In overall patients, neurologic damage was found at first examination in 73% and among these, complete paralysis below the injured level in 26%, incomplete paralysis in 11% and nerve root injury in 35%. 4. Among 47 patients, conervative treatment was performed on 9 patients, anterior spinal fusion on 8 patients, anterior spinal fusion with Halo application on 4 patients, posterior wiring with posterior spinal fusion on 16 patients and posterior wiring with anterior spinal fusion on 8 patients. 5. In the several methods of treatment, the posterior wiring with anterior spinal fusion revealed the best results, the correction rate of displacement was 92%, the correction rate of angular deformity 98% and neural recovery rate 72%. 6. The posterior wiring with posterior spinal fusion revealed good results in correction of displacement and angular deformity but required rigid external support for a long time. The anterior spinal fusion revealed poor results in correction of displacement(67%) and angular deformity(38%) and required rigid external support for a long time and had increasing tendency of kyphotic angle after operation. 7. In the treatment of unstable cervical spine injury, we thoughy that early posterior reduction with posterior wiring and followed anterior spinal fusion was ideal for accurate reduction, rigid stability and early mobilization with simple external support.