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SEVERE INJURIES TO THE CERVICAL CORD AND SPINE: NEUROSURGICAL MANAGEMENT IN THE ACUTE AND EARLY STAGE
Author(s) -
SELECKI B. R.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1979.tb04954.x
Subject(s) - medicine , stage (stratigraphy) , neurosurgery , cervical spine , surgery , general surgery , intensive care medicine , paleontology , biology
The controversy of long standing in the management of cervical cord and spine injury in the acute stage ranges from an attitude of neurosurgical nihilism on the one hand, to indiscriminate, incompetent and routine “explorative” or “diagnostic” laminectomies on the other. Judicious neurosurgical management in the acute stage tends to overcome and eliminate the ill‐advised extreme attitudes by careful neurological and neuroradiological diagnostic assessment. The indications and contraindications for surgical treatment are carefully weighed in each case and are based on neurosurgical criteria and experience. This communication is a summary of methods and experience evolved in the diagnostic and surgical management in the acute stage. Indications, contraindications and techniques are presented in detail.