Vaskulárna medicína 1/2015

Injuries of aa. vertebrales in cervical spine trauma

Introduction:Despite relatively high incidence of cervical-spine-trauma, there´s virtually poor evidence regarding the concomitant trauma to the neck arteries. Yet, an acute occlusion of the vertebral artery could lead, as to the prognosis, to serious stem symptoms. Design and methods:Prospective cohort study from the beginning of October 2013 to the end of December 2014. The patients with a relevant cervical-spine-trauma were evaluated by duplex sonography either at the admission, or the next day after surgery, mostly correlated with the CT-angiography. Results:We evaluated 49 patients, 23 males and 26 females. Trauma to the right vertebral artery, a dissection, was found in one case, at the high of C4 – C5, along with an asymptomatic compression of the myelon. Both of them were found in a region of spondylophytic changes and indeed, these correlate statistically with a trauma to the artery and myelon (0,565 and 0,645). Conclusion:The arterial system and myelon seem to be quite resilient to trauma of the cervical spine. We identified the spondylophytes as a main risk factor.

Keywords: cervical spine, a. vertebralis.