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Spinal cord injury

Missed pediatric spinal injuries—neurological consequences?

Undetected spinal fractures can cause damage of the spinal cord and lead to adverse neurological outcomes. A recent study on a pediatric cohort has shown that noncontiguous spinal injuries are often missed on primary radiographic examination, highlighting the need for combined radiographic, clinical and neurophysiological examinations to detect these lesions.

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Figure 1: MRI and dermatomal SSEP recordings to detect the level of a spinal injury.

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Dietz, V. Missed pediatric spinal injuries—neurological consequences?. Nat Rev Neurol 8, 181–182 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2012.20

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