Clinical Analysis of Cervical Spine Injured Patients in Military Services

The authors had analyzed the cases of 40 patients in military services with traumatic cervical spine injuries retrospectively. Among the 40 patients, 20 patients underwent surgical treatment. The results were summarized as follows: 1) The causes of injury were traffic accidents(45.5%), falling down(32.5%), and sports injuries(17.5%). 2) The common mechanisms of injury were flexion, vertical compression and extension. 3) Fifty percent of these patients had surgical intervention by anterior approach(10), posterior approach(8), combined anterior/posterior approach(1), and anterior approach after posterior approach(1). 4) As for the final outcome, there was no statistical difference in Frankel's neurological grade between patients treated with and without surgical stabilization procedures(p>0.005) 5) Except for the cases with progressive neurological deficits by bony fragments, disc protrusion, hematoma or other irreducible lesions, delayed surgical treatment(after 10 days)was recommended.

Clinical Analysis of Traumatic Subdural Hygroma and its Relation with Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Using 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT

Measurement of regional cerebral blood flow with single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT) was performed using 99mTc-HMPAO in 16 patients with traumatic subdural hygroma, and we investigated the relationships between the results and the initial clinical findings and clinical outcomes on 4-month after injury. In patients with complex subdural hygroma, improvement of perfusion on follow up SPECT was correlated with the clinical outcome. But in patients with simple subdural hygroma, the clinical outcomes were good regardless of cerebral perfusion on initial SPECT and cerebral hypoperfusion was improved on follow up SPECT in all patients. These results suggested that associated parenchymal injury, initial perfusion of the frontal cortex, and improvement of perfusion on follow up SPECT were good indicators of clinical outcome. In conclusion, HMPAO-SPECT can be helpful in predicting the prognosis and assessing the effect of surgical treatment in patients with traumatic subdural hygroma.