Abstract
A tlantoaxial dislocations usually present with fatal brain injury, but rarely with clinical problems. With the development of newer imaging techniques, as well as improved preoperative and perioperative care, the likelihood of survival from an atlantoaxial dislocation has increased. Survivors usually suffer incomplete neurological deficits, including Brown- Se ´ quard syndrome or central cord syndrome. The authors describe a distractive atlantoaxial dislocation, with neurological sequelae, in a younger patient who had been involved in a car accident. This case was treated surgically, but the patient suffered paraplegia due to thoracic myelopathy.
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