Le lesioni traumatiche vertebro-midollari cervicali costituiscono nell'infanzia un'evenienza relativamente rara, variando dallo 0,65% 26 al 9,4% 29 rispetto ai traumi vertebrali di tutte le età39. L'esperienza casistitica raccolta dalla letteratura 2,4,7,9,11,12,16,17,19,22,24,26,30,42 (tabella 1) risulta quasi sempre esigua, anche in lunghi periodi di tempo. Anche nell'attività degli ultimi 5 anni del Pronto Soccorso Traumatologico del Policlinico S. Matteo di Pavia e della Clinica Ortopedica dell'Università di Pavia sono stati raccolti 11 casi, in età da 2 a 11 anni, tutti senza alcuna sintomatologia neurologica, tutti diagnosticati come distorsioni cervicali e trattati unicamente con provvedimenti ortopedici incruenti.
La revisione della letteratura consente una serie di considerazioni attinenti non solo il riconoscimento ed inquadramento neuroradiologico dei traumi cervicali infantili.
L'esperienza ricavata dalla letteratura non consente tuttora un univoco atteggiamento diagnostico e terapeutico nei traumi cervicali infantili, che costituiscono rispetto a quelli dell'adulto un'evenienza più rara. Ortopedici, neurologi e radiologi debbono essere consapevoli di doversi misurare con una patologia per vari aspetti differente.
Da una parte il riconoscimento delle lesioni vertebrali traumatiche non è sempre agevole o immediate specie in fase acuta e, basandosi principalmente sulla radiologia tradizionale, esige uno fruttamento attento e completo della semeiotica classica, escludendo casi border-line.
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