Clinical aspects of cervical spine traumatic injury biomechanics

Abstract

Cervical spine trauma is one of the most serious injuries of the human musculoskeletal system, as structural disorders of the cervical spine lead to neurological disorders due to damage to the spinal cord and/or its roots or create conditions when instability poses a significant potential threat to anatomical integrity and functional capacity of the spinal canal structures. A lot of classifications of traumatic injuries of the cervical spine have been developed, they are based on the biomechanics of injury, but none of them is generally accepted and universal. Failures to develop a system that could clearly determine the causal relationship between the effects of the traumatic agent and the traumatic bone changes are due to a number of causes. Extensive clinical material accumulated over the years of study of traumatic changes in the cervical spine allowed identifying the main criteria that determine the nature and degree of traumatic injuries. These include the parameters of traumatic action and individual characteristics of the victims, in particular physiological indicators and the presence of comorbidities. In this review, we present a brief description of the main clinical factors influencing the biomechanics of traumatic cervical spine injury (nature, direction and intensity of traumatic action, age of a patient, muscle condition and initial curvature of the cervical spine, as well as some comorbidities: degenerative changes of the spine, osteoporosis, connective tissue diseases, congenital malformations). These criteria are of practical importance that allows using the collected information not only in theoretical but also in applied aspects.