Expert: Dr. Paul Newhart - 5/21/2009

Question
i was recently in a bad car wreck and  had 3 fractured ribs, 1 collapsed lung, 1 fractured clavical and the doctor said that i had a fracture in my neck but he said that it looked like an old injury. i picked up my hospital report regarding my injuries so that i could go to a pain clinic and recieve treatment but as i wait for my upcoming apointment i am having a hard time understanding the report regarding my fracture in my neck. it reads - "there is no gross evidence of boney fracture. there is a hairline thin lucency present along the anterior ring of c1. this may be artifactual as the c1 ring appears intact. there is no soft tissue edema. this could be reevaluated on follow up imaging."
my question is what exactly does this mean ? if it suggests a stress fracture then why does it say there is no gross evidence of boney fracture ? will the doctor at the pain clinic be able to evaluate my neck pain with this report alone or will i need an additional ct scan ? any help will be greatly appreciated and thank you.

Answer
It wounds as if, when the spine was developing, an area of C1 didn't turn completely to bone, leaving a thin slice of cartilage which shows in the CT scan.  This is a normal anomaly, an usually not a concern.  The pain management docs should be able to help you with the information in this CT scan.