Expert: Gerald Anzalone, D.C. - 1/23/2011

Question
Hi
I wrote to you the other day and was very grateful for your quick response to my question, as i had said before i lost my husband in Nov last year and you kindly answered all my questions about the trip he had to the Chiropractor.
I recently found some X-rays and a report of my husband done 6 months ago and it says he had narrowing of the c3/4 c4/5 c5/6 and that he had osteophyte and uncovertebral of the facet joint and osteoarthritic changes causing some osteophytic encroachment on the intervertebral foramina bilaterally could you please explain this to me and would have increase the chance of this small fall on his head to break the c2 and sever the spine.
I am so so grateful for all your help. Christine

Answer
Christine,

The x-ray findings you note in your question all essentially describe degenerative joint disease, or osteoarthritis. These findings have absolutely nothing to do with your husband's fall. As I understand it from your description, your husband sustained a fall in which he fractured his second cervical vertebra. This is known as a "hangman's fracture". Your husband died because the fractured vertebra severed his spinal cord as a result of the fall. It had absolutely nothing to do with the osteoarthritis you mention on his prior x-rays. You may remember that the actor, Christopher Reeve, suffered a similar accident many years ago, which left him paralyzed from the neck down.

I'm sorry again for your tragic loss.

Sincerely yours,

Gerald Anzalone, D.C.