Do cervical spine X-rays for trauma have clinically significant incidental findings?

OBJECTIVES: About 800,000 cervical X-rays for trauma are taken every year in the USA. Those X-rays are reviewed by orthopedic specialists in the emergency room (ER) for traumatic findings. The quantity of incidental atraumatic findings in this very prevalent examination is unknown. We sought to determine the incidence of those findings. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 521 consecutive cervical X-rays of patients with a whiplash injury that visited our ER from February to July 2010. X-rays that were technically insufficient were excluded. This left 356 X-rays that met the inclusion criteria, which were analyzed for incidental findings. The examinations were reviewed by five staff radiologists for incidental findings. The findings were reviewed and classified. RESULTS: We identified incidental X-ray findings in 22 of the 356 patients (6.2 %) who underwent X-ray of the cervical spine during their visit to the ER. Stenosis with disk narrowing was the most common finding (2.8 %), followed by congenital anomaly of the cervical spine (2.2 %). Other findings were enlarged sella turcica (0.6 %), carotid atherosclerosis (0.3 %), and calcification of the stylomastoid ligament (0.3 %). Older age was found to be a risk factor for an incidental finding (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Incidental findings in the cervical spine were associated with older age. Awareness of the prevalence of incidental findings is important in order to ensure that they are detected and managed appropriately.

[Trousseau's syndrome in lung adenocarcinoma. The rare appearance of venous gangrene]. / Síndrome de Trousseau en adenocarcinoma de pulmón. La infrecuente aparición de la gangrena venosa.

Trousseau's syndrome includes a wide range of coagulation disorders, migratory thrombotic phenomena being the main associated entities. Treatment is difficult and venous gangrene constitutes a rare but deadly final stage that is particularly painful for the patient. The outlook after treatment is poor.

[The adaptational reactions in mild experimental craniocerebral trauma and its combination with alcoholic intoxication]. / Adaptatsionnye reaktsii pri legkoi cherepno-mozgovoi travme i ee sochetanii s alkogol'noi intoksikatsiei v éksperimente.

The article deals with the results of experimental study of adaptation reactions in mild craniocerebral trauma (MCCT) combined with acute alcoholic intoxication on the basis of appraisal of the dynamics of endocrine and neuromediator shifts. A stress character of these shifts was revealed. Acute alcoholic intoxication levelled the stress reaction occurring in MCCT.

[The experimental and clinical use of gelatin sponges with kanamycin and gentamycin for the prevention and treatment of suppurative complications in neurosurgery]. / Eksperimental'noe i klinicheskoe primenenie zhelatinovykh gubok s kanamitsinom i gentamitsinom dlia profilaktiki i lecheniia gnoinykh oslozhnenii v neirokhirurgii.

Antiseptic gelatin sponges with kanamycin and gentamicin, which were studied in experiments on animals and used in the clinic, are a reliable measure for the prevention of suppuration in craniocerebral surgery in planned operations and in combination with debridement in penetrating injury of the skull and brain. For therapeutic purposes, local application of the agents is effective in focal suppurative processes in the skull and brain after surgical debridement of the purulent focus (abscess of the brain, osteomyelitis of the skull, etc.).