• Michele Cappuccio, Federico De Iure, Luca Amendola, Stefania Paderni, and Giuseppe Bosco.
• Department of Spine Surgery, Maggiore Hospital, Bologna, Italy, michele.cappuccio@libero.it.
• Eur Spine J. 2013 Nov 1;22 Suppl 6:S900-4.

IntroductionSurgical management of upper cervical spine (UCS) unstable injuries may be challenging as the number of cases requiring this surgery collected in every single center is small. This retrospective study was conducted to analyze the radiographic and clinical results in 12 patients undergoing a posterior occipito-cervical fusion by a polyaxial screws-rod-plate system.MethodsThere were eight male and four female patients with a mean age of 73.7 years (range 32-89 years). Six patients presented neurologic deficits at admission. Six patients had sustained major trauma. The remaining six patients had suffered a minor trauma.ResultsTwo patients died postoperatively in Intensive Care Unit. All surviving patients achieved solid fusion at 6 months. No surviving patient had neurological deterioration postoperatively. There were no instrumentation failures or revision required. Two patients suffered from superficial occipital wound infection.ConclusionsAlthough the indication to occipito-cervical fusion decreased since the new C1-C2 posterior fixation techniques were described, it remains a valid and reliable option in UCS post-traumatic instability to be applied even in emergency especially in the elderly.

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