ABSTRACT
Objective To discuss diagnosis and anterior surgical treatment of hyperextensian cervical spine injury combined with intervertebral disk injury. Methods A retrospective study was done on clinical data of 27 patients who suffered from hyperextension cervical spine injury combined with intervertebral disk injury to analyze their age distribution, clinical symptomes, X-ray and MRi manifesta-tions and perioperative intervertebral disk injury. All patients were treated with discectomy, strut bone grafting within vertebral bodies and internal fixation with titanium plate. The clinical outcomes were evalu-ated by using Frankel scale and ASIA motor score (AMS). Results Both MRI and X-ray detected following abnormal pathological changes in all patients: rupture of anterior longitudinal ligament, horizon-tal tear of disk, intervertebral disk hernia, compression and edema of spinal cord. The follow-up lasted for 9-32 months (average 17.5 months), which showed that all patients got improvement for 1-3 scales except that one patient with Frankel A had no improvement in neurological function. Compared with AMS on admission, both AMS at two months after surgery and at final follow-up was increased significantly, with recovery rate of AMS for 44.9% and 68.1%, respectively. There found no hardware related compli-cations such as implant loosening, defluxion or breakage. Bone fusion was found in all fixation segments. Conclusions MRI and X-ray are important examination means for hyperextension cervical spine injury combined with intervertebral disk injury. On a specified diagnosis, anterior surgical treatment should be done early and can get satisfactory recovery of spinal cord function.