Rumboldt Z. Clinical Imaging of Spinal Trauma: A Case-Based Approach. Cambridge Medicine 2018; 140 pp; $79.99
This short, case-based soft-covered book, “Clinical Imaging of Spinal Trauma” edited by Zoran Rumboldt, MD, is a compilation of over 50 cases involving spinal imaging. Sixteen others contributed material to this book; each case features imaging, imaging findings, differential, clinical findings/implications/treatment, and additional information.
The text starts with 8 cases of normal variants/mimickers of trauma (Section 1) and then moves to issues which are more controversial (Section 2), such as role of plain films, when to scan, or the significance of a negative CT. The remaining 4 sections deal with types of trauma in various locations (stable and unstable), injuries to the spinal cord/nerves/vasculature, and soft tissue; including ligaments, thoracic lumber injuries/classifications, pediatric spinal trauma, and miscellaneous trauma cases.
This text serves as an important review for any radiologist (since most radiologists deal with trauma imaging on a nearly daily basis), but it’s particularly helpful for neuroradiologists, and for those who primarily work in the ER due to the imaging shown and the descriptions that accompany them. Throughout the chapters, there are many gems of information and image depictions, such as a central and peripheral preganglionic nerve avulsion, differentiating hematomas in the SAS, the subdural space, and/or the epidural space, contrasting extension teardrop fracture’s from flexion fractures, among many others which are instructional.
There are areas which should have been discussed but were not—such as the often subtle findings of ligament injury at the C1 — C2 level (cruciate, transverse, apical ligaments) in addition to the pulse sequences most likely to show these lesions, or the use of DWI to distinguish between types of compression deformities/fractures and vertebral body collapse. Overall, this is a book which should be in the ER/trauma library for ready review or reference.
