[Spinal injuries caused by the flexion mechanism].

The clinical documentation of 1,302 patients treated for spine injury from the flexing mechanism in 1965-1987 was analyzed. The relation between the degree of nervous system damage, the obtained neurological results and the character of injury (fracture or dislocation) as well as the level of spine injury was taken into account. It has been found that incidence of flexing injury of various parts of the spine oscillates slightly (39-44 per cent of all injuries). On the other hand, there is a significant predisposition to more frequent occurring of dislocations at flexing injury of the cervical spine and flexing fractures at thoracic spine injuries. The authors previous observations that young persons have more often fracture of the vertebra and older person--dislocation have been confirmed. Deep damage of the spinal cord is present more often at dislocation than fracture. The most serious damage of the spinal cord occurs at thoracic spine injury, in which the authors have found a very high percentage of patients with palsy (83 per cent at fracture, 98 per cent at dislocation).