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A spinal fracture, also called a vertebral fracture or a broken back, is a fracture affecting the vertebrae of the spinal column. Most types of spinal fracture confer a significant risk of spinal cord injury. After the immediate trauma, there is a risk of spinal cord injury (or worsening of an already injured spine) if the fracture is unstable ...
unstable spinal fracture-dislocation at the thoracolumbar junction: Thoracic Spine Fractures and Dislocations at eMedicine: Hume fracture: A.C. Hume: olecranon fracture with anterior dislocation of radial head: Ronald McRae, Maxx Esser. Practical Fracture Treatment 5th edition, page 187. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2008.
It can cause low back pain, weakness or paralysis in the lower limbs, loss of sensation, bowel and bladder dysfunction, and loss of reflexes. [39] There may be bilateral sciatica with central disc prolapse and altered gait. [38] Unlike conus medullaris syndrome, symptoms often occur only on one side of the body. [37]
Abnormal movement of neck bones or pieces of bone can cause a spinal cord injury, resulting in loss of sensation, paralysis, or usually death soon thereafter (~1 min.), primarily via compromising neurological supply to the respiratory muscles and innervation to the heart.
A compression fracture is a collapse of a vertebra. It may be due to trauma or due to a weakening of the vertebra (compare with burst fracture ). This weakening is seen in patients with osteoporosis or osteogenesis imperfecta , lytic lesions from metastatic or primary tumors , [ 1 ] or infection. [ 2 ]
Surgery is considered when symptoms persist after attempting conservative treatment. It is estimated 10-20 percent of individuals with low back pain fail to improve with conservative measures. [22] A discectomy is a common procedure used to alleviate the radiating pain and neurological symptoms associated with a herniated disc. [23]
It is not unusual for patients to walk in for treatment and have such a fracture discovered on X-rays. Only if the force of the injury is severe enough that the vertebral body of C2 is severely subluxed from C3 does the spinal cord become crushed, usually between the vertebral body of C3 and the posterior elements of C1 and C2. [citation needed]
A burst fracture is a type of traumatic spinal injury in which a vertebra breaks from a high-energy axial load (e.g., traffic collisions or falls from a great height or high speed, and some kinds of seizures), with shards of vertebra penetrating surrounding tissues and sometimes the spinal canal. [1] The burst fracture is categorized by the ...