Early surgical treatment for lower cervical spine injury in 55 cases

    CHEN Zhiª²Bo,CHANG Yunª²Bing, YIN Qingª²Shui,XIA Hong

    1Department of Medical Administration, PLA 211 Hospital, Harbin 150080, China, 2Department of Orthopedics, General Hospital, Guangzhou Military Area Command, Guangzhou 510010, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To study the aim, suitable time and techniques of early surgical treatment for lower cervical spine injure. METHODS: Fiftyª²five cases of lower cervical spine fracture and fractureª²dislocation were treated with early surgical therapy, among whom 43 cases were treated with anterior decompression and illac autograft, and 12 cases were treated with posterior decompression. RESULTS: Three of the six cases with complete spinal cord injury died. Fortyª²nine of the 52 cases were followedª²up for 4-49 months, averaging 21 months. There were different degrees of neurological recovery in the 41 cases with partial spinal cord injury. CONCLUSION: Surgical treatment is useful to the early reconstruction of stability. Suitable time and techniques of the surgery depend on the patient¬ðs situation. The use of internal fixation after decompression and bone graft will expand the clinical application of the surgical treatment. ......