Injuries of the upper cervical spine: A series of 28 cases

BACKGROUND: There are very few published reports of upper cervical spine injuries from our country and there is a heavy bias towards operative treatment of these injuries. We present below our experience of upper cervical injuries over the last four years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty eight patients (20 males, 8 females) with upper cervical spine injury (including Occiput, Atlas and Axis) were treated and were followed-up for an average of 11.2 months. The data was analyzed retrospectively with regards to the location and type of injury, the treatment offered (conservative or operative) as well as the final clinical and radiological outcome. RESULTS: The clinico-radiological outcome of treatment of these injuries is mostly very good with few complications. Other than a single case of mortality due to associated head injury there were no major complications. CONCLUSION: Management of these patients needs a proper evaluation to arrive at the type of injury and prompt conservative or operative treatment. Treatment is usually safe and effective with good clinical and radiological outcome.