In the seven-year period from 1967 through 1973, there were thirteen patients with the injury of the upper portion of the cervical spine treated in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Kyushu University and Kyushu Rosai Hospital.
There is no diagnostic clinical syndrome of the injury of the upper portion of the cervical spine. Usually the immediate pain in severe, and is often referred into the occipital region of the scalp. The pain is accentuated by any attempt to move the head. The commonest neurological complication seen in the survivors of this injury is damage to the greater occipital nerve, giving the reffered pain in the occiput.
