When looking at a spine with this type of injury, its important to evaluate the space for the spinal cord, to ensure the broken bone is not compressing the spinal cord. The injury is diagnosed with x-rays, but often a CT scan is used to better understand the pattern of the broken neck bone. Its uncommon for someone with this injury to have neurologic injury, its usually pain that patients reports. How is an Odontoid Fracture diagnosed?Ī patient with this type of fracture comes in after a whiplash type injury complaining of worsening neck pain. A type 2 fracture is a break at the base of the dens, and a type 3 fracture is when the break goes into the main portion of the second vertebre. Its due to an avulsion of a ligament called the alar ligament (an avulsion means the ligament is ripped off the bone and actually pulls part of the bone off with it). A type 1 fracture occurs when just the tip that breaks. This bump is a weak link in the spine and can break. This particular vertebre has a unique structure and there is a bump that forms a joint with the first vertebre. If you over extend your neck, the vertebre shifts backward, if you over flex your neck then your vertebre shifts forward. The 2nd vertebre can be broken after a whiplash type injury (your neck is hyper extended or hyper flexed). What is an Odontoid Fracture? The odontoid (also known as the “dens”) is the second vertebre in your neck (you have a total of 7 vertebre in the neck, another 12 in the thoracic spine and 5 in the lumbar spine).
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