CHAPTER 11
CLASSIFICATION OF SPINAL FRACTURES
From the author's experience on more than 2,500 spinal injuries, the following main
varieties of fracture of the vertebral column are described in some detail:
(A) FRACTURES OF VERTEBRAL PROCESSES
These are fractures of lateral, spinous and articular processes. They can occur singly, but
in the majority of spinal injuries, they occur in combination with fractures of the vertebral
body. Fractures of the lateral and spinous processes are sometimes the result of a strong,
sudden muscular contraction, such as the clay- or coal-shoveller fracture of the spinous
process of the yth cervical vertebra. Lonnerblad (1934), Mathes (1935) and Hall (1940)
reported numerous fractures of spinous processes in shovellers as a result of the sudden
jerk in throwing clay when the clay stuck to the shovel. While fractures of spinous and
lateral processes do not need special treatment, unless they cause continuous pain and
have to be removed, fractures of the odontoid process always require specialized manage–
ment. Fig. 42 shows fractures of lateral processes of the lumbar vertebrae on the left side,
and Fig. 49 demonstrates a fracture of the 6th spinous process.
20. 10. 59.
FIG. 42.
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