Traumatic Vertical Cervical Distraction Injury

Catastrophic sub-axial vertical cervical distraction injury is rare.

Sharma and Sieg presented a 49-year-old male whose dreadlocks were caught in drill press. His head being spun around resulting in degloving and distraction injury. He was unresponsive with Glasgow coma scale of 3T. He coded multiple times and underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). CT cervical spine showed 4.8 cm vertical distraction of spine at C5-6 level and sub-glottic tracheal separation. CT head showed diffuse cerebral edema. Despite aggressive resuscitation, he did not survive this catastrophic injury. This is the first report of such sub-axial vertical cervical distraction injury from United States ¹⁾