Posterior Cervical Plate Fixation in Cervical Injuries

ABSTRACT

Posterior stabilization of unstable cervical spine injury using metal plate and screw has been commonly used in Europe but very rarely in Korea where it has been usually achieved with wires supplemented by bone graft. We have experienced 11 patients of unstable lower cervical spine injuries which were stabilized with posterior cervical plate without bone graft. One patient was total quadriplegia and two patients showed minor motor and sensory changes and the others were neurologically intact. Operations were performed within 10 days after trauma(average 4.9 days) except 2 cases of late instability. Most of the patients could ambulate the day after operation with a Philadelphia collar which was kept for 3 months. We achieved good postoperative alignment of injured cervical spine and tolerable neck motion limitation and we experienced no surgical complication. So we suggest that posterior cervical plate fixation technique is a good method of cervical stabilization for lower cervical spine injury, especially when posterior compartment injury is predominant.