Treatment problems in unilateral locked facet syndrome of the cervical spine

In a retrospective study of 22 patients with unilateral locked facet syndrome of the cervical spine, diagnostic and treatment problems were analysed. Diagnosis was delayed in ten patients; in two-thirds of the patients minor or major therapeutic problems were encountered. The treatment protocol advised manipulative reduction and--before 1986--posterior fusion by bone blocks and interspinous wiring; after 1986 ventral intercorporeal fusion by plates was recommended. Closed reduction manoeuvres risk dislocation of intervertebral discs, overdistraction of the spinal cord or injury to the vertebral artery. Unreduced and unfused dislocations are likely to develop chronic instability. Dorsal wiring is an inadequate form of stabilization and ventral plates or dorsal hooks are preferred. To prevent treatment problems a treatment protocol is proposed according to which open reduction following anterior discectomy, operative decompression of endangered nerve roots and stable one-level fusion is done. In non-acute injuries neural structures are decompressed; posterior fusion is done without attempts at reduction.