Cervical spine injury in patients with facial skeletal trauma.

The records of 2,555 patients admitted to hospital with facial fractures were reviewed for concomitant neck injury. Cervical spine injury occurred in 1.3% of all patients with facial fractures, the incidence rising to 5.5% with facial fractures resulting only from MVA's. Neck injuries occurred most frequently in the setting of MVA's (85%) and multisystem trauma (70%) and tended to involve two main levels of the cervical spine: C2 (31%) and the two lower cervical vertebrae C6 and C7 (50%). Examination of the pattern of cervical spine injury with respect to the pattern of facial skeletal injury does not support the premise of a direct causal relation between them.