scenario010
The whole spine must be imaged whenever a fracture is found in one region. Up to 20% of patients will have a second injury, and in approximately 5% this will be a non-contiguous injury distant from the first detected. This patient had a second unstable fracture-dislocation at T7/8 which required operative stabilisation.

A 5-view series including two additional oblique views has not been shown to increase the accurracy of cervical spine injury diagnosis over the standard 3-view series. However, supine-oblique views may replace the antero-posterior view in the 3-view series.

This patient should proceed to CT scan evaluation of both injuries, and MRI scanning to evaluate whether early decompression would be of benefit.