A study on functional outcome following surgical fixation for lower spine injuries
<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Cervical spine injuries are one of the common causes of serious morbidity mortality following trauma. 6% of trauma patients have spine injuries of which >50% is contributed by a cervical spine injury. The aim of the study was to determine the functional outcome following surgical fixation for sub-axial cervical spine.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> this prospective study involving 17 patients who were all admitted with sub-axial cervical spine injuries and amenable to intervention in our department of orthopedics and traumatology, government Theni medical college, Tamil Nadu, India in the year 2019-2020. Duration of 6 months from December 2019 to may 2020.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Most of the injuries presented within 24 hours of injury. Most of the patients presented with an incomplete neurological deficit. C5-C6 subluxation with disc bulge was the most common spinal injury. 5 patients were operated on more than 2 levels. The rest of the patients were operated on at 2 levels.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> We consider that the anterior decompression and fusion with a locking compression plate is a viable procedure in sub-axial cervical spine injuries.</p>