Fracture of the Odontoid Process in a Seventeen-Month-Old Infant Treated with a Halo

Abstract

A seventeen-month-old child with a fracture of the odontoid process with anterior dislocation of the atlas with a mild neurological deficit is reported initially. Treatment was with a halo fixation apparatus and the progress of healing was followed by cineroentgenography. Total immobilization time was ten months and consisted of halo, three months; plaster collar and jacket, two months; and cervical collar, five months. The radiolucent area between the odontoid process and the body of the axis prior to fusion at the age of three years is not a linear epiphyseal plate but histologically cartilage undergoing conversion to trabecular bone from advancing centers of ossification above and below.