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Case 28 - Hyperextension Injury

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0:01

I must admit that although we talk about hyperflexion

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and hyperextension injuries to the cervical spine,

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it's very rare that we actually get

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that history from the clinicians.

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What we usually just get is motor vehicle collision

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or found down, or status post fall.

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So, although there are these specific patterns of injury that

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may be associated with the different

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types of mechanisms of injury,

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we really don't get to have that classification

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provided to us by the clinical service.

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Here is a list of the hyperextension injuries.

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As you can see,

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you may have a fracture of the spinous

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process with a hyperextension injury.

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You may have the hyperextension teardrop, a little triangular

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fragment here with widening of the intervertebral space.

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You may have some offset of the facet

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joints even with a hyperextension

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injury to the cervical spine.

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One of the things that you should include in your

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description of the injury is whether or not

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the patient has underlying disease.

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The reason for this is because sometimes the surgical

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intervention or the necessity for surgical intervention will

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be predicated upon whether or not the patient has a disease

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process that may lead to instability of the spine.

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Let me give an example.

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Rheumatoid arthritis patient, for example,

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will have laxity of the ligaments,

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often at the C1-C2 level with atlantoaxial subluxation.

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This is a patient who has diffuse

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idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis, connecting

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all these different vertebral bodies.

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And he knows that there is a fracture here with an offset and

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an absence of the continuation of that bony margin there

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at the, I believe this is C6-C7 level. Ankylosing spondylosis,

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another example where you may have syndesmosis or

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syndesmophytes between the vertebral bodies and yet have

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an injury that will fracture through the ankylosed

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cervical spine, thoracic spine, or lumbar spine.

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On the MRI scan that accompanies this case,

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you see that there is narrowing of the AP diameter spinal canal

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at the level of the injury with a small epidural abscess,

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both posteriorly as well as anteriorly.

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This is the dural margin, this black line.

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This is the black line of the dural margin,

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and this is the black line of the dural margin.

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And on this case,

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the patient had an epidural hematoma, both anteriorly as well

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as extending posteriorly from this fracture through here.

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Notice also the anterior longitudinal

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ligament disruption and the fracture.

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So this is a first-column disease as

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well as second column disease.

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And then we would probably look at that ligamentum

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flavum and be concerned about the third column.

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But in any case,

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the MRI's value is not just in demonstrating

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the ligamentous injury,

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but also looking for cord injury as well as the presence

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or absence of epidural hematomas.

Report

Faculty

David M Yousem, MD, MBA

Professor of Radiology, Vice Chairman and Associate Dean

Johns Hopkins University

Tags

Neuroradiology

Head and Neck

Emergency

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