Treatment of chronic traumatic C7-T1 grade III spondylolisthesis with mild neurological deficit: case report

Traumatic cervical severe spondylolisthesis is a rare and severe lesion which is typically associated with a spinal cord injury. Nevertheless, it occasionally has a pauci-symptomatic course which may delay its diagnosis. The authors report an exceptional case of a 33-year-old woman who had mild spas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of spine surgery (Hong Kong) Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 82 - 86
Main Authors Mata-Gómez, Jacinto, Ortega-Martínez, Marta, Valencia-Anguita, Julio, Gilete-Tejero, Ignacio, Royano-Sánchez, Manuel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published China AME Publishing Company 01.03.2017
Subjects
Case Report
severe spondylolisthesis
trauma
traction
spinal cord
C7–T1
Cervical
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Summary:Traumatic cervical severe spondylolisthesis is a rare and severe lesion which is typically associated with a spinal cord injury. Nevertheless, it occasionally has a pauci-symptomatic course which may delay its diagnosis. The authors report an exceptional case of a 33-year-old woman who had mild spasticity in her lower limbs and neck pain 9 months after a traffic accident. The computed tomographic scan and magnetic resonance image revealed C7-T1 grade III spondylolisthesis and spinal cord signal change. The initial cervical traction did not obtain a spinal realignment. An anterior-posterior approach was performed to achieve a correct spinal fusion. After 18 months of follow-up care, the patient's symptoms improved significantly and she began to lead a normal life again. The case underlines the importance of performing a correct initial diagnostic workup upon a patient. This would improve surgical management by avoiding a worsening of the initial neurological deficit during the realignment maneuvers in the chronic grade III, IV or V spondylolisthesis.
ISSN:2414-469X
2414-4630
DOI:10.21037/jss.2017.02.10