Traumatic and neoplastic instability of the cervical spine

Determining the stability of the cervical spine is paramount to the successful management of patients with cervical spine trauma or neoplastic disease. While this article will discuss both traumatic instability and neoplastic instability, the underlying pathology of each requires a different approach. Traumatic cervical spine injuries must be broken down into upper and lower cervical spine injuries, and the stability is predicated on both the boney and ligamentous injury. This article will go through the different fracture patterns and discuss the stability of each one. Additionally, it will discuss the important biomechanical and clinical issues that lead to the diagnosis of metastatic instability in the cervical spine.