Cervical spine injuries and management: Experience with 235 patients in 10years

During the past 10-year period 235 patients with cervical injury were inclu ded in this study. In this paper we present our clinical experiences in pat ients with cervical spine injury treated surgically and conservatively and their outcome. Only few data exist on the treatment of cervical spine injur ies. The principles of the management are still controversial. The 235 pati ents with cervical spine injury admitted to our department were assessed wi th Frankel's grading scale and treated surgically and conservatively accord ing to the type and level of the injury; 172 patients were treated surgical ly, and 63 patients were managed conservatively. The neurological state of the patients and the treatment modality are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. In the upper cervical injury, except type II odontoid fracture with a d islocation of more than 6 mm, conservative treatment modalities were perfor med. In the lower cervical injury, an anterior approach with discectomy and anterior fusion were performed if there was spinal cord compression anteri orly. Otherwise a posterior approach with decompression and a variety of po sterior fusion techniques were used.