TY - JOUR PY - 2024// TI - Pediatric traumatic cervical distraction injury: a case report JO - Curēus A1 - Mitani, Shigeru A1 - Sugimoto, Yoshihisa A1 - Iba, Hideaki A1 - Uchino, Kazuya A1 - Nakanishi, Kazuo A1 - Watanabe, Seiya SP - e62910 EP - e62910 VL - 16 IS - 6 N2 - Spinal cord injury due to trauma is rare in children. We report our experience with the surgical treatment of a cervical spinal cord injury in a one-year-old child with quadriplegia due to traffic trauma. The patient was a girl aged one year and five months. Physical examination findings were quadriplegia and loss of consciousness. Plain computed tomography (CT) of the cervical spine showed a vertical distraction injury of C6/7, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed spinal cord injuries of C1/2 and C6/7. Based on these findings, a diagnosis of C1/2 and C6/7 spinal cord injury (Frankel A) was made. The patient's state of consciousness did not change during the first week after injury; she was managed systemically with a ventilator. On the 10th day after the injury, her consciousness improved, and she was placed in a pediatric halo vest for weaning. However, as the alignment worsened, we operated. A 5 cm posterior incision was made at the median of C5/6/7. Only the spinous process was deployed, a Nespron tape (Alfresa Pharma Corporation, Osaka, Japan) was wrapped between C5/6 and C6/7, and an autologous iliac bone graft was placed at the C6/7 bilateral facet joint. Six months after surgery, bone fusion was complete. At one year and six months postoperatively, tetraplegia had not improved. Radiographs showed no growth disturbances despite residual alignment abnormalities.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 2168-8184 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.62910 ID - ref1 ER -