While pediatric cervical spine injuries are not extremely common, when they occur, the life-long debilitating consequences for the child, their family, and society are catastrophic. In order to mitigate these injuries to children, we must understand the mechanics of the child neck and the inputs which create these deleterious injuries. Automotive crashes represent a significant percentage of th...

BACKGROUND No randomized control trial to date has studied the use of cervical spine management strategies in cases of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) at risk for cervical spine instability solely due to damaged ligaments. A computer algorithm is used to decide between four cervical spine management strategies. A model assumption is that the emergency room evaluation shows no spinal deficit...

sustain traumatic brain injuries due to blunt force trauma. Cervical spinal injury should be suspected in any trauma patient with loss of consciousness. All of the following patients should undergo a radiographic search for a cervical spinal injury: patients who present awake with neck pain or tenderness, patients with a neurologic deficit, patients who have sustained a traumatic brain injury, ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology of cervical spine injury in the patients with cervical trauma and analyze its associated risk factors during the special heating season in North China. METHODS This cross-sectional study investigated predictors for cervical spine injury in cervical trauma patients using retrospectively collected data of Hebei Provincial Orthop...

UNLABELLED This review constitutes the first of four reviews that systematically address contemporary knowledge about the mechanical behavior of the cervical vertebrae and the soft-tissues of the cervical spine, under normal conditions and under conditions that result in minor or major injuries. This first review considers the normal kinematics of the cervical spine, which predicates the apprec...

We reviewed 161 patients, from four centres in Switzerland, who had undergone posterior fusion of the upper cervical spine with transarticular screw fixation of the atlanto-axial joints. They were followed up for a mean 24.6 months. The vertebral artery and the medulla escaped injury and only 5.9% of the complications were directly related to the screws. The rate of pseudarthrosis was 0.6%.

STUDY HYPOTHESIS Cervical-spine radiography does not need to be performed on selected blunt trauma patients who are awake, alert, nonintoxicated, do not complain of midline neck pain, and have no tenderness over the bony cervical spine. STUDY POPULATION One thousand consecutive patients seen in the UCLA Emergency Medicine Center with a chief complaint of blunt trauma, for whom cervical-spine ...

BACKGROUND Although upper cervical and upper thoracic spine mobilization plus therapeutic exercises are common interventions for the management of forward head posture (FHP), no study has directly compared the effectiveness of cervical spine mobilization and stabilization exercise with that of thoracic spine mobilization and mobility exercise in individuals with FHP. METHODS Thirty-two partic...

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...

BACKGROUND The most common site of fractures in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is the cervical spine, especially the lower cervical spine and cervicothoracic junction. The optimal treatment for cervical spine fractures secondary to AS is controversial. This study aimed to explore the effects of posterior pedicle screw fixation alone on fractures of the lower cervical spine in patient...