抄録
We report a case of delayed diagnosis of cervical fracture-dislocation in a paient with multiple trauma. A 58-year-old woman sustained multiple trauma in a traffic accident. She was unconscious, and suffering from brain contusion and an open fracture of the left fibula. Because of sedation for general control, a cervical fracture-dislocation (C6/7) was overlooked until 5 days after hospitalization. At this point the patient had quadriparesis (Frankel C) due to this cervical lesion. Anterior and posterior fusion was performed on the same day when the cervical fracture-dislocation was discovered. Neurological deficits improved dramatically after the operation and the patient had almost fully recovered at the 18-month follow-up examination. In cases of head injury in patients with high-energy multiple trauma, cervical spine injury should always be borne in mind, and we suggest that MDCT would be more useful in this situation.
