fracture of cervical spine in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis

Description: A patient with thirty years history of ankylosing spondylitis sustained a head and neck injury after a fall.He was transmitted to the emergency department .His GCS was 15 with no findings in neurological examination.He had x-rays of the head and neck which considered normal and the patient discharged from the hospital.The patient for the next three months complained for neck pain and numbness of the upper arms
and had new x-rays and MRI which revealed a burst fracture of C7 vertebra.The patient is treated in a cervical collar Philadelphia type and is examined every month.
Fractures of cervical spine are obtained easily in patients with ankylosing spondylitis even after a minor trauma  due to osteoporosis and altered embiomechanics . Most of them have fractures in the C6-C7 vertabra and are three- column fractures.Doctors must have in mind this serious complication of ankylosing spondylitis