Rare high cervical gunshot injury presenting as Brown – Sequard syndrome: Management dilemmas

Abstract

Spinal trauma due to missile/gunshot injuries has been well reported in the literature and has remained the domain of military warfare more often. The chief neurosurgical concern in these types of firearm injuries is the degree of damage sustained during the bullet traversing through the neural tissue and the after effects of the same in long term. Sometimes, though their management can be tricky and may pose certain management dilemmas. We report an interesting case of a penetrating bullet injury to cervical spine at C2 vertebral level presenting as Brown Sequard syndrome. Not only the site was unusual, this patient also posed few treatment related issues. The clinical presentation, imaging and the management of the patient are discussed along with relevant literature regarding gunshot injuries to spine.

Keywords

• missile injury
• penetrating cervical injury