Cervical spinal cord injury without bony injury

Cervical spinal cord injury without demonstrable bony injury occurred in 141 (37%) of 384 successive neck injuries admitted to the Sheffield Spinal Injuries Unit. The condition was common in patients in the older age-groups and there were 70% of the cases who were over the age of 50 years. The commonest cause was a fall. The patients presented with varying degrees of motor paralysis with the greatest deficits in the upper limbs and lesser deficits in the lower limbs. There was a dissociation of impairment of the sensory modalities and a loss of bladder and bowel control.