Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 16, 2024; 12(17): 3214-3220
Published online Jun 16, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i17.3214
Steel bar penetrating cervical spinal canal without neurological injury: A case report
Qin Zhang, Tao Ding, Xiao-Feng Gu, Yi Liu
Qin Zhang, Tao Ding, Xiao-Feng Gu, Yi Liu, Department of Orthopedics, The Affiliated Wuxi People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi 214023, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Zhang Q and Ding T performed the surgery, formal analysis and original draft preparation; Gu XF was responsible for data curation; Liu Y was responsible for review and editing; all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Zhang has nothing to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Qin Zhang, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Orthopedics, The Affiliated Wuxi People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 299 Qing Yang Road, Wuxi 214023, Jiangsu Province, China. zhangqin993@163.com
Received: February 20, 2024
Revised: April 25, 2024
Accepted: May 16, 2024
Published online: June 16, 2024
Processing time: 105 Days and 13.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Cervical spinal canal penetrating trauma is rare. We present a rarer case of a serious cervical spinal canal penetrating trauma caused by a steel bar in a building site. Computed tomography demonstrated that the steel bar penetrated the cervical spinal canal at the C6-7 level, without obvious signs of vascular structure involvement. The steel bar was successfully removed through an open surgical procedure by a multidisciplinary team. The patient returned to a fully functional level without any neurological deficits. No similar report has been found previously. This case even challenges the cognition about the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology today.