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Traumatic Vertebral Fractures

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Vertebral Body Augmentation, Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty in Spine Surgery

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Abstract

Traumatic vertebral fractures are the result of high-energy blunt trauma and account for 6% of all fractures. Sixty-five percent of these fractures occur due to motor vehicle accidents and falls from height and they are more frequent in men between 20 and 40 years old. Association with other injuries, such as rib fractures, pneumothorax, great vessels lesions, hemopericardium, and diaphragmatic rupture are common. A patient with a suspected spinal trauma, should be managed in the emergency room following the basic principles of trauma assessment and, once life-threatening injuries are prioritized, a careful history about the injury mechanism and a thorough physical examination with evaluation of the presence of neurological deficits is mandatory. Fracture evaluation requires the execution of antero-posterior and lateral plain radiographs, CT scan in order to assess fracture morphology and in some instances also of an MRI to study spinal cord and nerve roots. Of paramount importance is the evaluation of fracture morphology to establish the presence of spinal instability that leads to surgical management of fractures, taking advantage of different classification of vertebral lesions. In this field, augmentation procedures may also play a significant role.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, IRCCS National Cancer Institute “Regina Elena”, Roma, Italy

    Stefano Telera & Laura Raus

  2. Department of Oncologic and Degenerative Spine Surgery, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy

    Valerio Pipola & Alessandro Gasbarrini

  3. Spine Surgery Department, “Maggiore” Hospital AUSL Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Federico De Iure

Authors
  1. Stefano Telera
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  2. Laura Raus
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  3. Valerio Pipola
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  4. Federico De Iure
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  5. Alessandro Gasbarrini
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Correspondence to Stefano Telera .

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Telera, S., Raus, L., Pipola, V., De Iure, F., Gasbarrini, A. (2021). Traumatic Vertebral Fractures. In: Vertebral Body Augmentation, Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty in Spine Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76555-2_10

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