IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences (IOSR-JDMS) e-ISSN: 2279-0853, p-ISSN: 2279-0861.Volume 20, Issue 6 Ser.1 (June. 2021), PP 54-58 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0853-2006015458 www.iosrjournal.org 54 | Page Traumatic cervical spinal injuries and outcome of anterior cervical fusion surgeries at Jos, North central Nigeria. A single centre experience. Danaan J. Shilong 1 , Gyang M. Bot 1 , Dumura J. Alfin 1 , Onyemaechi E. Nwibo 1 , Nanpan I. Kyesmen 1 . 1 (Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria) Abstract: Background: Anterior cervical fusion surgeries are viable surgical options for treating many lesions that involve the ventral part of the neck. It can come in the form of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) or anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion (ACCF) with or without the use of plates and screws. These procedures achieve sufficient decompression of the spinal cord and the nerve roots and also the stabilization of the spine. The objective of this study is to determine the characteristics of cervical spine/spinal cord injuries and the outcome of cervical fusion surgeries in terms of neurological improvements and survival rates. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective review of all consecutive patients presenting to our hospital with cervical spinal injuries requiring surgical decompression and fusion from January 2012 to December 2020. The vertebral level of injury and presence of cord contusions were determined using 0.3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. Their demographics, aetiology of injury, level of injury, nature of injury, neurological recovery and survival were extracted from their case notes and inputted into SPSS version 26 for statistical analysis. Results: There was a total of 92 patients who had anterior cervical fusion surgeries, however, only 73 had complete records and these were the ones used for the analysis. The mean age was 35.1±11.6 years. The males accounted for 80.8% of the patients. Road traffic collision was the most common cause of trauma. The most common site of injury was the C5/6 area which accounted for 28%. The most common type of injury was complete type; that is the American Spinal injury association(ASIA) impairment scale (AIS) A .About 30% of the patients experienced some improvement in their neurology. Our in hospital mortality was 27.3%. Conclusion: Though the patients experienced some modest improvement in their neurology, the mortality following cervical spinal injury is high despite surgical intervention in our setting and this may be related to a delay in surgical intervention. Key Word: Trauma, cervical, spinal cord, contusion, complete injury. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 20-05-2021 Date of Acceptance: 05-06-2021 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction The cervical spine is the most common site of injury following a traumatic insult to the spine. Injury to the spine may involve the bony, ligamentous or neural structures either singly or in combination. When the cervical spinal cord is involved, the spectrum of presentation can range from a transient concussion from which the patient recovers fully to a complete spinal cord transection in which the chances of useful neurological recovery is greatly reduced or nonexistent. The functional disability that follows a cervical cord injury correlates well with the severity of the injury in terms of the injury being complete or incomplete. Spinal cord injury is considered one of the most debilitating injuries one can have considering the functional impairment, short and long term complications associated with this injury. 1 Fairly common complications associated with a cervical spinal cord injury include respiratory failure, thromboembolic phenomena, urinary tract infections, pressure sores and sepsis. The most common cause of cervical spine trauma is road traffic collision and this is closely followed by falls. The most common site injured is the point of transition between the mobile and the fixed segments of the cervical spine and this corresponds to the C5/6 area. The higher the level of the cervical spinal cord injury, the more likely is the patient to have a respiratory compromise and this has a major impact on the survival of the patient. X-rays, computerized tomographic scans and magnetic resonance imaging have their roles in the evaluation of a patient with cervical spinal injury. Surgery is indicated in the scenario of a cord or nerve root compression by herniated disc material, fractured bone pieces or a situation of instability of the spine. Surgery would then be necessary to achieve a decompression and or stabilization of the spine as a goal. This goal can be achieved by either an anterior or a posterior approach or a combination of the two approaches. The