The classifications of subaxial cervical spine traumatic injuries. Part 1. General principles

• Published in: Ukrainian neurosurgical journal 2019-09, Vol.25 (3), p.12-26
• Main Authors: Ievgenii I. Slynko, Alexey S. Nekhlopochin, Vadim V. Verbov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2663-9084; 2663-9092
• DOI: 10.25305/unj.171334

Cervical spine and spinal cord injury is a significant medical and socio-economic problem of modern society. Ongoing urbanization, the development of high-speed modes of transport and the intensification of military conflicts lead to a progressive increase in the number of victims with this pathology. At the same time, unlike several other socially significant diseases, the category of the most employable population suffers from spinal injuries. Achievements of modern medicine to a much greater extent contribute to reducing the mortality of patients, rather than regression of neurological disorders. The usage of new diagnostic methods for neuroimaging and expensive surgical instruments, the continuous improvement of rehabilitation treatment of patients with spinal cord injury determine the progressively increasing costs for medical and social life support expenses.A large number of experimental and clinical studies, improvement of methods for surgical correction and stabilization of the damaged vertebral motor segment undoubtedly dictate certain changes in the tactics of treatment. The classification of traumatic spinal injuries is of key importance in determining the approaches, timing and volume of surgical intervention. Following the care algorithms helps to minimize the negative effects of traumatic damage to both the spine and the spinal cord and contributes to the maximum possible recovery of neurological functions.The last few decades have been characterized by the gradual replacement of the previously widely used “morphological” classifications of traumatic injuries of the cervical spine to “clinical” ones, based on an analysis of some heterogeneous factors determining treatment tactics.The first part of the review deals with a detailed description of the main criteria used in developing modern “clinical” classifications of subaxial cervical spine traumatic injuries. Besides, modern views on imaging methods and algorithms for determining the need to perform diagnostic procedures at primary hospitalization in patients with suspected cervical spine traumatic injury are presented.