Traumatic Vertical Cervical Distraction Injury

Catastrophic subaxial vertical cervical distraction injury is rare. In this report, we present a 49-year-old male whose dreadlocks were caught in a drill press. His head was spun around, resulting in a degloving and distraction injury. He was unresponsive with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3T. He coded multiple times and underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Computed tomography of the cervical spine showed a 4.8-cm vertical distraction of the spine at the C5-6 level and subglottic tracheal separation. Computed tomography of the head showed diffuse cerebral edema. Despite aggressive resuscitation, he did not survive this catastrophic injury. This is the first report of such subaxial vertical cervical distraction injury from the United States.