Traumas of the axial skeleton

Abstract

In the European Union, there are over 130,000 victims of spinal injuries each year. In the majority of cases, initial radiography is performed in community hospitals and, therefore, in the majority of cases radiography remains the basis on which the initial evaluation of a spinal injury is made. It has been shown that 46% of spinal injuries are missed by radiography compared to multi-detector row computed tomography (MDCT), and there are many advocates who stress that in multitrauma patients MDCT should be the first imaging modality. Some 10-14% of all spinal fractures and dislocations are associated with spinal cord injury. Injuries of the cervical spine are by far the ones most commonly associated with neurological deficit which occurs in about 40% of these patients [1]. In 85% of patients, cord injury occurs at the time of the accident while in 5-10% cord injury develops very shortly thereafter [2]. The majority of cord injuries are in the lower cervical spine and at the cervico- thoracic junction (Fig. 1). © 2005 Springer-Verlag Italia.