[Encephalic syndrome following trauma of the cervical vertebrae in childhood].

The author, by explaining and taking the "encephalic syndrome", which was first described in 1949 by Bärtschi and Rochaix, as a base, gives a detailed description of a corresponding syndrome for the age of childhood. After discussing the clinical symptomatology, course of disease, etiology, and pathogenesis, he describes the method of differential diagnosis that allows a clear distinction to be made between the encephalic syndrome and commotio cerebri and commotio spinalis. From a stock of 50 patients with vertebragenic headache it was possible to isolate 5 cases with encephalic syndromes due to cervical vertebral column traumata. The actual number of such cases would doubtless be much higher if it would be possible for pediatric neurologists to examine all cases of craniocerebral traumata in children. The clinical characteristic - according to anamnestic, actual clinical, and catamnestic findings - was a chronical and progressive symptomatology of headache after the disappearance of symptoms of commotion with resistance to therapy with conservative agents since this is a vertebragenic type of headache ("cervical migraine") caused by either a blockade of the upper cephalic joints or insufficiency of ligaments. The necessity of establishing a specific diagnosis arises from the fact that this allows the ailment to be treated by methods of manual and physical therapy, relieving both mother and child from the diagnosis of damage to the brain, which is highly disadvantageous to them from a social prognosis point of view.