Citation

Vialle R, Piétin-Vialle C, Vinchon M, Dauger S, Ilharreborde B, Glorion C. Childs Nerv. Syst. 2007; 24(1): 79-85.

Affiliation

Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Armand Trousseau Hospital, 26, avenue du Docteur Arnold Netter, Paris Cedex 12, 75571, France, raphael.vialle@trs.aphp.fr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00381-007-0437-z

PMID

17632726

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to report a multicentric study of nine cases of children presenting with a birth-related spinal injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical charts of nine patients identified by a questionnaire sent to the members of the French Society of Paediatric Orthopaedics (SOFOP) were reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: The pregnancy was uneventful in all cases. The fetal presentation was cephalic in three cases, a breech presentation in four cases, a face presentation in two cases. The lesion involved the cervical spine in six cases. Three patients presenting upper cervical injuries died before the age of 6 years. The six remaining patients experienced no neurological improvement. These rare conditions occur during difficult deliveries with abnormal presentations, the most common being a breech presentation with entrapment of the fetal head. In a child with hypotonia, flaccid quadriplegia or high thoracic paraplegia after a difficult delivery, a spinal cord injury must be suspected and plain radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) must be performed.

Language: en