[Clinical picture of cranio-cerebral trauma combined with trauma to the cervical region of the spine].

On the basis of 60 observations the peculiarites of clinical manifestations of skull-brain injuries combined with trauma of the cervical vertebrae are described. It is demonstrated that in such cases the syndrome of the cerebral lesion often plays the leading part, masking the symptoms of the spinal cord injury. The disorders in circulation in the vertebral-basilar system due to the compression of the vertebral artery canal by the dislodged fragments, its thrombosis, and irritation of the periarterial sympathetic plexus are of importance in the genesis of the developing syndrome in the rombencephalic portion of the brain. In the mechanism of vestibular disorders a certain place belongs, apart from the direct traumatization of the rombencephalic portion and circulation disorders in the vertebral-basilar system, to injuries of the vestibulospinal pathways. The autonomous-visceral pathology observed in cases of cervical injuries can be attributed to the direct effect of the trauma upon the segmental innervation appratus of the heart, diaphragm, thorax.