Management of post-traumatic craniovertebral junction dislocation: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis of casereports

Although historically considered fatal, with the advent of improved pre-hospital care, traumatic dislocation of the craniovertebral junction (CVJ) has been increasing in prevalence in neurosurgical centers. As more survivors are reported each year, a timely review with meta-analysis of their management seems necessary. PRISMA checklist was followed step by step. PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched using words “craniovertebral junction dislocation” and their corresponding synonyms. Study eligibility criteria included research studies from 2015 onwards that delineated adult and pediatric patients with confirmed post-traumatic atlantooccipital dislocation (AOD) or atlantoaxial dislocation (AAD) who survived until proper treatment. Of 1475 initial records, 46 articles met eligibility criteria with a total of 141 patients with traumatic CVJ dislocation. Of the patients, 90 were male (63.8%). Mean age of the cohort was 33.3 years (range 1–99 years). Trauma that most often led to this injury was road traffic accident (70.9%) followed by falls (24.6%). The majority of authors support posterior instrumentation of C1-C2 (45.2%) especially by means of Goel-Harms method. At mean follow-up of 15.4 months (range 0.5–60 months), 27.2% of treated patients remained neurologically intact. Of initially symptomatic, 59% improved, 37% were stable, and 4% deteriorated. Instrumenting the occiput in cases of pure AAD was associated with lower chance of neurological improvement in chi-square test (p = 0.0013) as well as in multiple linear regression (β = − 0.3; p = 0.023). The Goel-Harms C1-C2 fusion is currently the most frequently employed treatment. Many survivors remain with no deficits or improve, rarely deteriorate. Involving the occiput in stabilization in cases of AAD without AOD might be related with worse neurological prognosis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10143-020-01366-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.