Traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation with survival: a case report and review of the literature.

The number of patients who have survived traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, the usual outcome of which is death from brain stem transection, has increased in the past two decades due to improvements in on-scene resuscitation and transportation. This case of survival after traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation is of interest because the patient had a complete neurologic recovery and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was obtained to confirm the diagnosis and rule out associated injuries.