Occult ligamentous injury of the cervical spine associated with cervical spine fracture


Published online: Dec 27 2005

Roberto Seijas, Oscar Ares, José Casamitjana

From Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

We report the case of a 20-year-old patient with a C5 cervical spine fracture and an undetected ligamentous lesion between C1 and C2. Cervical spine lesion protocols and the rates of lesions that are not diagnosed with standard evaluation protocols are reviewed, with particular emphasis on comatose patients. Dynamic studies during the surgical procedure for fixation of the fracture are recommended to increase the detection of ligamentous lesions.