Abstract
The term “hangman's fracture,” describing traumatic spondylolisthesis of the axis, has been used since the original description in 1965 by Schneider et al. This retrospective study included 7 consecutive patients with hangman's fracture. There were 6 males and one female with a mean age of 51.7 years at surgery. The average follow-up period was 38.3 months (range 10-105 months). The cause of injury was a road traffic accident in 3 patients, a fall from height in 2 patients, sport in one patient, and other cause in the remaining patient. All the patients showed solid union with no implant failure. There were no neurological complications. Radiological evaluations showed an average angulation of 8.4 degrees and translation averaging 2.5 millimeters before surgery. The residual deformity after surgery averaged 1.0 degrees of angulation and 1.3 millimeters of translation. The average final residual deformity was 3.1 degrees of angulation and 1.3 millimeters of translation. Operative treatment of hangman's fracture achieved good clinical and radiological outcomes in this series.
