Traumatic single facet subluxation of cervical spine without neurological damage. A new clinical sign.

The vast majority of injuries to the cervical spine, unaccompanied by neurological deficit, escape diagnosis because of the minimal clinical symptoms associated with such injuries. For the same reason many of those who consult their doctors following such injuries, are not adequately investigated. This article presents a new clinical sign to recognise a certain type of cervical spine injury, and a simple way of documenting the observations. It is proposed that in the presence of this sign, adequate radiological investigations must be deemed mandatory to exclude bony injury to the cervical spine.