T spine Kyphosis

To me the t spine is very interesting. i started looking up things on kyphosis aka humpback and found some very interesting information on http://www.spineuniverse.com/. Kyphosis can be found in adults and children. It is most common in the tspine however it can be found in the c spine as well. The kyphotic angle is severly exaggerrated compare to the normal kyphotic curve we all have. There are several causes of kyphosis and narrowing them down is done by mri, ct and being examined by a physician. The two kinds of kyphosis are : postural and structural. Postural is caused by bad posture leading to the change of curve inyour back over time. Structural kyphosis causes vary and can be helped or corrected by posture, surgeries,etc .The pictures shown are of people who have kyphosis. One is of a ct and another of a xray found on: www.eradiography.net

Cervical spine CT

An experience I had this weekend was a teenager came in after playing a sport whom was unresponsive and after the ct was complete we noticed he had a 50 % anterior subluxation hangmans fracture. The boy will be paralyzed from the neck down now.

A hangman's fracture consists of bilateral pedicle or pars fractures involving the C2 vertebral body. C2's vertebral body being fractured and anteriorly subluaxtion or dislocation is normally associated with this as well. This is caused from a severe extension of the neck or spine. This kind of fracture normally blocks the airway and compresses the spinal cord.

Here is an image of a hangmans fracture on a ct sagittal view. The image and some information was found on : http://www.universespine.com/

Vascular Neck Injuries and CT

Vascular neck injuries mostly were found and explored by surgery or convential radiology. Today we are using ct to help with angiography studies of the neck. It is non invasive and easy to see pathology. Ct shows all the tissues and with using the contrast properly it helps with the vascular system as well. Vascular ct also helps with identifying aneurysms and more.

Information from radiology.casereports.net/.

Neck CT

A ct of the neck is a popular scan that is done at most hospitals. The scan needs to show the whole neck region which is from the bottom of the head to the top of the chest. A lateral scout is done to set up your scan from to help better define the skull and chest. This scan shows several things such as : gland lesions, head and neck cancers, neck masses or abscesses, foreign bodies, etc. Contrast is almost always used in neck studies to show the vascular system. Here is a picture of a neck ct.