European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
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Review Case Reports
Traumatic vertical atlantoaxial instability: the risk associated with skull traction. Case report and literature review.
Traumatic overdistraction between C1 and C2 may occur when all the ligaments connecting C2 to the skull are ruptured, and may be manifested when an attempt to reduce C1-C2 subluxation is made by means of traction. We describe here the case of a patient with traumatic anterior atlantoaxial dislocation, who developed atlantoaxial vertical dissociation after skull traction using a Gardner-Halo with lb 4.02 (1.5 kg) of weight. ⋯ In this case, it might have been prevented by avoiding spinal traction. The aim of this report was to show that vertical dissociation may occur in C -C2 anterior dislocation submitted to spinal traction, and that other forms of reduction must be considered to treat these pathologies and avoid this potentially fatal complication.
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Vertebral arthrodesis is one of the most commonly performed, yet incompletely understood, procedures in spinal surgery. Despite major progress in internal fixation techniques, the high rate of nonunions indicates that physiologic, biologic and molecular events that are crucial to this process are not well known. This article will analyze the general biology of bone regeneration, and particularly discuss the properties and use of various bone graft materials and graft substitutes.