[Diagnosis of fractures of the occipital condyles]

The imaging diagnosis of occipital condyle fractures by CT and MRT is reported for cases of 4 patients. Following the conventional X-ray diagnosis of the skull and upper cervical spine, CT proved to be the primary diagnostic method after a skull and brain injury: for all 4 cases we succeeded in detecting the occipital condyle fracture and in determining its size and location by reconstructions (coronal, sagittal, 3-D). In the case of complex accompanying injuries like soft tissue hematomas (cerebral, in the spinal cord, and the soft tissue of the neck) or for the detection of brain stem contusion, MRT had significant advantages. MRT can offer a higher image quality in soft tissue, especially in the spinal cord and the brain.