Upcoming Events
Log In
Pricing
Free Trial

Case: Lumbar Transverse Process Fracture

HIDE
PrevNext

0:01

I'd like to make one teaching point about

0:03

transverse process fractures.

0:06

Here we have a patient who we're scanning through

0:08

the lumbar spine. This is the 12th rib.

0:11

We come to the L1 level.

0:13

We have a transverse process fracture on the left.

0:16

The right side doesn't look bad.

0:19

We come to the L2 level.

0:20

We have a transverse process fracture at the L2 level.

0:24

The right side looks pretty good.

0:26

We come to the L3 level.

0:27

We have a transverse process fracture on the left side.

0:31

The right side, maybe

0:32

there's a small avulsion of the transverse process.

0:35

We come down to the next level, it looks good.

0:37

And the next level we're okay.

0:40

So the points to be made here are that lumbar spine

0:44

transverse process fractures often occur multiply.

0:47

You may see it bilaterally usually because us

0:50

of this avulsion by the psoas musculature.

0:54

But most importantly is that if you are

0:56

reading in general and find these

1:00

transverse process fractures,

1:01

you have a relatively high rate of abdominal

1:05

pelvic visceral injury as well.

1:08

So while this is focused on the spine,

1:13

you do want to expand the field of view and look

1:15

at the soft tissues of the abdomen and pelvis.

1:19

Because pelvic visceral organ injury has a high rate

1:26

when you have lumbar spine

1:28

transverse process fractures.

1:30

It's not that the transverse process

1:31

itself injures the viscera,

1:34

but the fact that you had an injury that was so extreme

1:39

as to avulse those transverse processes is

1:42

associated with an internal organ injury.

Report

Faculty

David M Yousem, MD, MBA

Professor of Radiology, Vice Chairman and Associate Dean

Johns Hopkins University

Tags

Trauma

Spine

Neuroradiology

CT

© 2024 Medality. All Rights Reserved.

Contact UsTerms of UsePrivacy Policy