Cervical-Spine Injuries in Children

¹ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago

Some children up to the age of nine years, who are normal otherwise, may show a partial anterior subluxation of the second on the third cervical vertebra. This is considered a normal variant in the appearance of lateral roentgenograms of the flexed cervical spine. A survey of forty-seven children in three different children's hospitals, all without symptoms or clinical evidence of neck disability, revealed that five children had marked subluxation of the second on the third cervical vertebra, and that three had borderline dislocations. Children who have these normal variations should not be subjected to extensive orthopaedic treatment, unless there has been a history of sufficient injury to the neck and clinical examination bears out the probability that these are pathological subluxations.

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