04 JUN, 2014

Vertebral dislocations are high energy injuries that rarely occur in the low back, but are found more frequently at the level of the thoracolumbar and sacrolumbar junctions. Dislocations of the mid-lumbar vertebrae are exceptional, with only 16 cases found in the literature. All previously reported cases were treated surgically. In four of these cases, the patients had no initial neurological lesions, and most of those who did have a neurological defcit exhibited some degree of recovery. We present the case report of an L3-L4 dislocation, without neurological lesions, resulting from an airplane crash. The anatomopathological mechanism of injury is discussed, together with treatment, which consisted of an initial closed reduction using a halo-bifemoral system, followed by pedicle instrumentation and arthrodesis from L2 to L5.

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