Pathology of cervical intervertebral disc injuries.

Autopsy was performed on 31 patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries who were treated and expired at the Chugoku Rosai Hospital between 1957 and 1987. These patients could be divided into four groups: intervertebral disc injuries (7 patients); hyperextension injuries (9 patients); fracture and fracture-dislocation of the cervical spine (11 patients); and fracture-dislocation of the thoracic spine (4 patients). The sex, age, cause of injury, bone injuries seen on roentgenograms, the level and grade of neurological deficits, the survival time, and the findings of the postmortem studies of the 7 patients with intervertebral disc injuries are presented in Table I. This paper illustrates and discusses these 7 cases.