Traumatic myelopathy in a seventeen-year-old child with cervical spinal stenosis (without fracture or dislocation) and a C2-C3 Klippel-Feil fusion. A case report.

A 17-year-old white male patient sustained a cervical hyperextension injury while body surfing. Plain cervical radiographs, tomography, and CAT scan showed neither fracture nor subluxation, but congenital narrowing of the spinal canal and fusion of C2-C3 (Klippel-Feil). Clinically, he had a central cord syndrome, characterized by a motor dominant myelopathy. The conservative management of this patient with a central cord injury in the presence of spinal stenosis and a Klippel-Feil syndrome resulted in almost full recovery although he was quadriplegic initially. This constellation of findings rarely has been reported in adolescence.