Occipitoatlantal Dislocation

Abstract

Occipitoatlantal dislocation (OAD) can be devastating. This injury may be fatal in many cases, but more survivors are reported because of improvements in diagnosis and treatment. This article describes the diagnosis and treatment of OAD. To diagnose and treat OAD appropriately, neurosurgeons must have a detailed understanding of the anatomy of the craniocervical junction. Various radiographic criteria are used to establish the diagnosis of OAD. A destabilizing injury such as OAD requires surgical fixation. Many surgical techniques are available for fixation of the craniocervical junction. Future studies will continue to refine the diagnostic criteria for OAD and to develop improved methods for craniocervical stabilization.

Craniovertebral anomalies associated with pituitary gland duplication

“…These congenital fusions of the cervical vertebrae are consistent with the Klippel-Feil anomaly, Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome and some other disorders [16,21,28,30,40,55].…”

“…The craniovertebral junction in the narrow sense comprises the right and left occipital condyles, atlas and axis [16,31,47]. Most of the anomalies of these bony elements occur very infrequently [1-3, 6, 8-10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 24, 25, 27, 28, 35, 36, 38-40, 46, 48, 50, 51, 54, 55].…”

C1 fractures: a review of diagnoses, management options, and outcomes

“…Burst, lateral mass, and laminar fractures are all recognized injuries. Single fractures involving the ring are highly unlikely, and a ring disruption typically accompanies any fracture [6,7]. Atlanto-occipital dislocations (AOD), commonly called internal decapitations, are another fracture pattern with C1 involvement [8].…”

Morphometric multislice computed tomography examination of the craniovertebral junction in neck flexion and extension

“…Some of the parameters, or the ratio of the corresponding diameters, in a neutral position are important in the evaluation of the interrelationships of the CVJ bones in normal and pathologic situations [11,22]. Thus, the diameters 4 and 6 normally do not intersect the atlas or the axis (Fig.…”

“…Flexion and extension of the cervical spine, including the CVJ, were examined in the experimental animals [9], in the post mortem human samples [2], in certain digital models [31,37], and in healthy volunteers using the radiographs, computed tomography (CT), and the kinematic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method, but not the multislice CT (MSCT) [8,12,19,20,22,24,31,34]. The flexion and extension were also examined in the patients with certain degenerative diseases, tumours, or traumatic injuries of the cervical spine [6,11,17,21].…”