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INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Fractures of the second cervical vertebrae (C2) and its odontoid process account for one of the most frequent cervical spine injuries that cause significant mortality and morbidity. The goal of injury treatment is to restore atlantoaxial complex stability. This article reports a young male patient aged 19 years who underwent surgical treatment due to odontoid fractures type III. CASE PRESENTATION: A 19-year-old male patient came with a chief complaint of weakness in the upper and lower extremities for 3 weeks before admission. The patient underwent a series of physical and radiological examinations and was diagnosed with atlanto-odontoid fracture dislocation Anderson and D'Alonzo classification type III and motoric aphasia due to traumatic subdural hygroma. The patient underwent temporary cervical traction with Garden-Wells tongs and planned for posterior stabilization with the Sonntag procedure. Three and six months follow-ups showed significant clinical improvement in range of motion (ROM). CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Surgical modalities of stabilization are more commonly chosen in patients with type II and type III odontoid fractures. We performed posterior stabilization with C1-C2 fusion using a modified Gallie (Sonntag) procedure and trans articular screw placement using the Magerl technique. The Gallie procedure was chosen because it could limit atlas displacement effectively which significantly improved Neck Disability Index (NDI) and visual analog score (VAS). CONCLUSION: We presented a rare case of Atlanto-odontoid fractures treated with a surgical procedure using a posterior approach that resulted in a excellent outcomes.
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INTRODUCTION: Grisel's syndrome is a rare condition characterized by nontraumatic rotatory subluxation of the atlantoaxial joint, which was caused by previous inflammation around the head and neck. It is usually seen in children and signed as torticollis. There was no consensus for management, yet early diagnosis and treatment is paramount. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 5-year-old girl came to outpatient clinic complaining of wry neck 1 day after surgical excision of her TB lymphadenitis and got worsen by time. There was no history of trauma around the neck. Examination under general anesthesia and CT scan revealed acquired severe torticollis consistent with Grisel's Syndrome Fielding type 3 accompanied by TB lymphadenitis, and TB myositis of the neck. Manipulation under general anesthesia and immobilization using Minerva cast followed by Lerman Cervicothoracal Osthosis was conducted. DISCUSSION: This patient was diagnosed with Grisel's syndrome and underwent conservative treatment consisting of reduction under general anesthesia and immobilization using Minerva cast for 6 weeks. The patient was then applied Lherman Cervical Thoracic Orthosis (CTO) halo brace for another 3 months. Anti-tuberculous drug was given to control tuberculous infection. Eight months follow-up showed neither residual deformity, neck pain, nor movement limitation of the neck. CONCLUSION: Grisel's syndrome has excellent result that is treated with conservative treatment using reduction under general anesthesia and Minerva cast.
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INTRODUCTION: Every emergency surgery performed is aimed at saving lives; however, during COVID-19 pandemic, surgeries are often postponed. Many existing recommendations take into account postponing surgery during a pandemic. How these surgeries can lead to increasing infection rates has not been widely published. This study aims to investigate the relationship of emergency orthopaedic surgery and the incidence rate of COVID-19. PRESENTATION OF CASE: This was a case series of 14 patients. The study was performed at the emergency department unit at a national tertiary hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. A total of 14 patients underwent orthopaedic surgery in the emergency room of our institution. The mean age of the subjects was 40.07 ± 20.5 years. Twelve (85.7%) were male patients and 2 (14.3%) were female patients. The average duration of surgery was 125 minutes. The most used type of anaesthesia was general anaesthesia for 6 operations (50%). Patients were hospitalized for an average length of 4 days. Three patients had infiltrates found on plain x-ray examination, which required further examination to determine whether the cause was COVID-19 infection or not. There was no ground glass appearance (GGO) in the three patients in further follow-up examination. CONCLUSIONS: We found that emergency orthopaedic surgery was not associated with increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Factors including duration of surgery, length of stay, types of anaesthesia and comorbidities were also not associated with COVID-19 cases in this study.
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BACKGROUND: Posterior instrumentation of the spine presents a challenge, especially in conditions with low bone quality. Pedicle screw insertion with cortical bone trajectory is designed to add interface between the screw and the bone through engagement between pedicles and the cortex when compared to conventional screw course. Pedicle screw insertion trajectory from cortical infero-superior and the proposed cortical supero-inferior should obtain better pull-out performance than conventional pedicle trajectory. We aim to evaluate the pull-out strength differences among conventional pedicle screw, cortical infero-superior, and cortical supero-inferior trajectories. METHODS: Samples from Yorkshire porcine lumbar spine (L1-L5; n = 30) were relieved of soft tissue attachments and dried. Morphometric measurements were conducted, and the samples were randomly assigned to 3 groups. The screws were inserted into the vertebrae by drilling with the 3 trajectories: conventional, cortical infero-superior, and cortical supero-inferior. The trajectories of the screws were examined using x-rays. Pull-out tests were conducted by applying uniaxial traction in line with the screw trajectory with a translational speed of 5 mm/min. The results of the pull-out are measured in Newtons. RESULTS: We obtained a mean value of pull-out force in conventional trajectory of 491.72 ± 187.2 N, cortical infero-superior of 822.16 ± 295.73 N, and cortical supero-inferior of 644.14 ± 201.97 N. Cortical infero-superior and cortical supero-inferior trajectories attained 67% and 30% higher pull-out mean, respectively. Using 1-way analysis of variance and a post hoc Tukey test revealed a significant difference between cortical infero-superior and conventional trajectories (P < .01). Differing pull-out strengths between cortical infero-superior and supero-inferior trajectories showed no statistical significance. Results of our study showed a 30% higher pull-out strength in our proposed trajectory than the conventional one, although not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: The trajectory of the screws within the lumbar spine seemed to have an impact in pull-out strength. Cortical bone engagement using the novel trajectories may increase pull-out strength of pedicle screws. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 5.
