[Traumatic disk hernia of the cervical spine].

The authors present 26 cases of traumatic disc herniation in the cervical spine submitted to anterior discectomy. All of the patient presented neurologic deficit, being 18 classified as Frankel A, three as Frankel B, 2 Frankel C and 3 Frankel D. There were observed three deaths in the immediate post-operative period due to respiratory insufficiency in patients classified as Frankel A. The other 23 cases have a follow-up of 14 months (6-84 months), presenting improvement of the neurologic deficit in six patients classified as Frankel B, C and D and only one as Frankel A. The authors emphasize the importance of the image methods in the diagnosis of this lesion.