Abstract
Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging plays an increasingly important role in evaluation of the patient who has sustained spinal trauma. This review discusses the role of MR imaging relative to plain radiographs and computed tomography in the evaluation of the patient with spinal trauma and presents a method for systematic review of MR images for assessing spinal injury.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Holmes JF, Mirvis SE, Panacek EA, Hoffman JR, Mower WR, Velmahos GC, for the NEXUS Group (2002) Variability in computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in patients with cervical spine injuries. J Trauma 53:524–529
Benzel EC, Hart BL, Ball PA, Baldwin NG, Orrison WW, Espinosa C (1996) Magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation of patients with occult cervical spine injury. J Neurosurg 85:824–829
Hogan GJ, Mirvis SE, Shanmuganathan K, Scalea TM (2005) Exclusion of unstable cervical spine injury in obtunded patients with blunt trauma: is MR imaging needed when multi-detector row CT findings are normal? Radiology 237:106–113
Warner J, Shanmuganathan K, Mirvis SE, Cerva D (1996) Magnetic resonance imaging of ligamentous injury of the cervical spine. Emerg Radiol 3:9–15
Qaiyum M, Tyrrell PNM, McCall IW, Cassar-Pullicino VN (2001) MRI detection of unsuspected vertebral injury in acute spinal trauma: incidence and significance. Skelet Radiol 30:299–304
Denis F (1983) The three column spine and its significance in the classification of acute thoracolumbar spinal injuries. Spine 8:817–831
Denis F (1984) Spinal instability as defined by the three-column spine concept in acute spinal trauma. Clin Ortop 65–76
DOI:dx.doi.org http://www.cns.org/education/medStudCur/curriculum.asp?inPage=c1, last accessed November 14, 2006
White P, Seymour R, Powell N (1999) MRI assessment of the pre-vertebral soft tissues in acute cervical spine trauma. Br J Radiol 72:818–823
Flanders AE, Schaefer DM, Doan HT et al (1990) Acute cervical spine trauma: correlation of MR imaging findings with degree of neurologic deficit. Radiology 177:25–33
Kliewer MA, Gray L, Paver J et al (1993) Acute spinal ligament disruption: MR imaging with anatomic correlation. J Magn Reson Imaging 3:855–861
Sklar EML, Donovan Post JM, Falcone S (1999) MRI of acute spinal epidural hematomas. J Comput Assist Tomogr 23:238–243
Schaefer DM, Flanders AE, Osterholm JL, Northrup BE (1992) Prognostic significance of magnetic resonance imaging in the acute phase of cervical spine injury. J Neurosurg 76:218–223
Selden NR, Quint DJ, Patel N, d’Arcy HS, Papadopoulos SM (1999) Emergency magnetic resonance imaging of cervical spinal cord injuries: clinical correlation and prognosis. Neurosurgery 44:785–792
Vaccaro AR, Madigan L, Schweitzer ME, Flanders AE, Hilibrand AS, Albert TJ (2001) Magnetic resonance imaging analysis of soft tissue disruption after flexion-distraction injuries of the subaxial cervical spine. Spine 26:1866–1872
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Provenzale, J. MR imaging of spinal trauma. Emerg Radiol 13, 289–297 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-006-0568-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-006-0568-7