[Sports injuries of the cervical spine (author's transl)].

The article reports on injuries of the cervical spine occurring during sports activities. An attempt is made to reconstruct the movements which led to the cervical spine injuries in question. In two cases of accidents occurring during bathing, one football accident and a toboggan accident, the injuries concerned point to hyperextension of the cervical spine as cause of the injury. In another football accident and a riding accident, the changes observed allow us to conclude that the movement leading to the injury must have been a hyperflexion. One accident occurring while jumping on the trampoline resulted in an injury of the upper cervical spine pointing to the action of a compressive force on the cervical spine in addition to the force resulting in hyperflexion.