An autopsy based retrospective study of the relationship between head injuries & cervical spine injuries.

Introduction: Humans have come a long way from caves to sky scrapers, telephone to internet call, telegram to whatsapp, Polaroid to digital photography and so on. Living in a modern world with better communication, easy transport facilities & better life style also comes with its inbuilt defect. One of such drawback is traffic accidents while persevering for quick, easy, cheap & convenient transport means. With every transport facilities we are exposing ourselves to its inherent risk.

Materials and Methods: Present retrospective study conducted in Central morgue, Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, S.C.B. Medical College & Hospital, Cuttack, Odisha aims at highlighting the association of cervical spinal injury with facial, cranio cerebral injury & subarachnoid haemorrhage respectively.

Results: In our study, of the 110 cervical injury cases 65 cases (60%) had suffered facial injuries (Relative risk of 1.5%). Out of those 60%, majority of the injury was exclusive of frontal impact followed by maxilla & mandible then Zygoma and lastly Nasal bone. Only 61 cases (55.50%) had both cervical spinal injury & cranio cerebral injury while 43 cases (39%) had also sustained subarachnoid haemorrhage along with cervical spinal injuries. Statistics was done using Social Science Statistics, 2018 & with p value less than 0.0001 in all the cases, the data is extremely statistically significant.

Conclusions: This article addresses the impact of collateral damage sustained during road traffic accidents which is potentially more devastating than the primary injury. Based on the findings of this study various guidelines can be framed & implemented for early diagnosis & treatment of any chance injuries in cervical spine injury cases