Soft Tissue Damage in Cervical Spine Extension Injury

Abstract

Purpose: To diagnose the extent of soft tissue damage with MRI, and to evaluate the relationship between soft tissue damage and a spinal cord injury in an extension injury to the lower cervical spine trauma. Materials and Methods: Eighty-one patients who treated surgically for an anextension injury to the cervical spine over the past 5 years, were analyzed. All patients had undergone MRI after the injury, and for the specific grading of soft tissue damage, the grades were defined from grades 1 to 5. Results: The spinal cord injury developed with more than grade 3 soft tissue damage associated with a rupture of the posterior longitudinal ligament (p＜0.01). The changes in signal intensity of the spinal cord also developed according to the severity of soft tissue damage (p＜0.01). There was no relationship between the soft tissue damage and the spinal cord injury in spinal stenosis (p=0.75). Conclusion: The extent of soft tissue damage was diagnosed precisely with MRI, and there was an close relationship between the soft tissue damage and spinal cord injury in the distractiveextension injury to the lower cervical spine trauma.