Fractures of the Second Cervical Vertebra in 66 Dogs and 3 Cats: A Retrospective Study.

Schmidli, Fenella E.; Stein, Veronika M.; Aikawa, T; Boudrieau, RJ; Jeandel, A; Jeffery, N; Jurina, K; Moissonnier, P; Rupp, S; Vidondo, B; Forterre, Franck (2019). Fractures of the Second Cervical Vertebra in 66 Dogs and 3 Cats: A Retrospective Study. Veterinary and comparative orthopaedics and traumatology : VCOT, 23(3), pp. 200-206. Thieme 10.1055/s-0039-1678542

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BACKGROUND:
 In human medicine, fractures of the second cervical vertebra have been studied elaborately and categorized in detail. This is not the case in veterinary medicine where clinical decisions are often based on old studies focusing on the cervical spine in general.

OBJECTIVES:
 The aim of this study was to describe the clinical features, fracture types, therapeutic options and outcome of dogs and cats with a fractured axis.

STUDY DESIGN:
 The present study was a multi-institutional retrospective case series.

RESULTS:
 Crossbreeds and Labrador Retrievers were the most represented dog breeds. Median age was 2 years. Motor vehicle accident was the most common inciting cause, followed by frontal collision. The most common neurological deficits ranged from cervical pain with or without mild ataxia (22/68) to tetraparesis (28/68) and tetraplegia (11/68). Concerning treatment, 37 of 69 patients underwent surgical fracture stabilization, 27/69 received conservative therapy and 5/69 were immediately euthanatized. Of all treated cases, 52/58 showed ambulatory recovery (23/25 of the conservatively treated and 29/33 of the surgically treated cases), whereby in 40/52 cases full recovery without persisting signs was achieved.

CONCLUSIONS:
Fractures of the axis commonly occur in young dogs. In many cases, neurological deficits are relatively mild. Generally, animals with a fractured axis have a very good prognosis for functional recovery. The risk of perioperative mortality is considerably lower than previously reported.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) > Small Animal Clinic
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) > DKV - Clinical Neurology

UniBE Contributor:

Schmidli-Davies, Fenella Elsa, Stein, Veronika Maria, Forterre, Franck

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0932-0814

Publisher:

Thieme

Language:

English

Submitter:

Manuel Roland Schmidli

Date Deposited:

04 Dec 2019 10:16

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:33

Publisher DOI:

10.1055/s-0039-1678542

PubMed ID:

31100766

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.135744

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/135744

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