A great misfortune: second traumatic spinal cord injury

A second and a separate traumatic spinal cord injury, which results in neurological deterioration, is very rare. In this report we describe a patient who became tetraplegic after sustaining a second spinal trauma. A 27-year-old female had a C(7)-T(1) dislocation after a motor vehicle accident. She was neurologically intact and she had undergone a posterior fusion between C(6)-T(2). She made a complete recovery. Eight months after her initial trauma, she sustained a second motor vehicle accident causing a C(5) burst fracture. Second traumatic spinal cord injury is a rare entity. Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of this type of injury. Whatever the treatment strategy is, the best treatment modality for traumatic spinal cord injury is prevention.