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Occipital Condyle Fracture with Associated Hypoglossal Nerve Injury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2014

Shaan Chugh ,
Kambiz Kamian ,
Bart Depreitere  and
Michael L. Schwartz
Shaan Chugh
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Neurosurgery), Sunnybrook & Women's College, Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Kambiz Kamian
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Neurosurgery), Sunnybrook & Women's College, Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Bart Depreitere
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Neurosurgery), Sunnybrook & Women's College, Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Michael L. Schwartz*
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery (Neurosurgery), Sunnybrook & Women's College, Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
*
2075 Bayview Avenue, A1 29, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
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Occipital condyle fracture (OCF) is a rare injury that was first described by Bell in 1817. In fact, there have been only 96 more reported cases of occipital condyle fractures from 1817 to 1994 of which only 58 survived. Occipital condyle fractures can sometimes go unnoticed or under-diagnosed as they are not always evident on plain radiographs of the cervical spine. Also, in rare cases OCFs can cause damage to the hypoglossal nerve which passes through the hypoglossal canal which is near the occipital condyle. The presence of specific symptoms and clinical signs should lead to the correct diagnosis. This paper describes a patient who was diagnosed with OCFs, but not hypoglossal nerve damage until 20 days following admission to hospital. We point out many factors that contributed to this delayed diagnosis, which ultimately caused severe discomfort to the patient.

Type
Peer Reviewed Letter
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , August 2006 , pp. 322 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Journal of Neurological 2006

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