Is cervical fracture serious?

The cervical spine is a very important part of the human body. When there is a problem with the cervical spine, it will have a direct impact on people's lives and daily actions. Fractures are not unfamiliar to many people. Fractures may occur in many parts of the human body. Cervical spine fractures are also a common clinical disease. When a cervical spine fracture occurs, the symptoms are very obvious, especially the pain is particularly severe. Many reasons may cause cervical fractures, including external stimulation, and the severity of cervical fractures also needs to be determined in conjunction with the injury. The problem of cervical fracture must be taken seriously. In addition to routine treatment, daily care is very important.

1. Severity

Cervical fractures may cause dyspnea due to respiratory muscle paralysis and secondary aspiration pneumonia due to severe injury and high paralysis level. Abdominal distension, bedsores and urinary tract infections are also quite common. Except for a few lucky ones, most people have signs of paralysis to varying degrees, and the proportion of complete spinal cord injury is relatively high.

2. Treatment

(1) Maintaining a patent airway: A patent airway is of great significance, especially for patients with complete spinal cord injury above the 5th cervical vertebra. Tracheotomy should be performed as early as possible.

(2) Restoring the morphology of the spinal canal and the stability of the vertebral segments: First, the alignment of the spinal canal should be restored through non-surgical or surgical methods. This will eliminate the compression on the spinal cord. At the same time, efforts should be made to ensure the stability of the damaged vertebrae to prevent the occurrence or aggravation of spinal cord injury. In addition to using traction therapy to immobilize the cervical spine, anterior or posterior surgical therapy can also be adopted as appropriate.

3. Note

If you want the injured bone to heal as soon as possible after a fracture, you must first ensure that your diet contains the nutrients necessary for the growth of the broken bone. The food only needs to be easy to digest and absorb. Supplements should be taken in the middle and late stages of the fracture to play a role in conditioning. In principle, the diet in the early stage of fracture should be light, such as fish soup, lean meat, etc. Avoid sour, spicy, dry, hot, and greasy foods. In particular, do not take fatty and greasy tonic foods too early, such as bone soup stewed with water fish, etc. Otherwise, blood stasis will accumulate and be difficult to dissipate, which will inevitably delay the course of the disease, slow the growth of bone callus, and affect the recovery of joint function in the future.