Cervical spine cord injury management options?
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A 21-year-old, fit and healthy football player was tackled from behind while running with the ball. He lost his balance and landed on his head. This resulted in a burst fracture dislocation of C5/C6 associated with immediate onset of complete tetraplegia. He was originally admitted to the local hospital. In the A&E department, management of his airway and respiratory compromise arising from his level of cord transection necessitated intubation and ventilation support. He had surgical stabilization of the cervical spine with bone grafting 5 days after injury. As attempted extubation after surgery failed, he required formal tracheostomy 10 days later. Postoperatively he developed chest infection and a Grade 3 pressure sore in the sacral region.
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@ayra Sport-related injury account for significant number of traumatic spinal cord injuries.1,2 These occur mostly in a young healthy population with most patients spending a long rehabilitation period in hospital and develop life long severe disabilities. Injury to cervical spinal cord is known to occur in rugby players. Over a period of three decades and in order to minimize the risk of neck injury in rugby the laws of the rugby game have been changed, standard of refereeing have been improved, standard of fitness in training have been improved as well, study of the cervical spine to look for abnormalities that would predispose the player to tetraplegia, better statistics of injuries and the awareness of the necessity of comprehensive insurance have been accepted
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Cervical spine injury is a highly debilitating injury and shall be managed as a team approach by the trauma and spine team of doctors. Every sportsman/individual shall have their health insured from their respective injury so that the economic burden suddenly shall not fall on the family as it takes months to years to recover.