ATLANTOAXIAL DISLOCATION IN SPONDYLOARTHRITIS: 8 NEW CASES

D. Kaffel, R. Dhahri*, S. Miladi, I. Zouch, W. Hamdi, M. M. Kchir

ABSTRACT

The C1-C2 dislocation is little known in spondyloarthritis while it can cause severe neurological manifestations. The aim of this work was to study clinical and radiographic features of C1-C2 subluxation in a sample of Tunisian spondyloarthritis (SA)' patients. We report a series of 8 SA patients with atloido-axial dislocation. We diagnosed anterior dislocation in 7 cases. It was associated with C1-C2 rotatory subluxation in one case. One patient displayed an isolated rotatory dislocation with lateral erosive arthritis of the lateral masses of the atlas. A periodontoid pannus was objectified in 6 cases. Among them two displayed a lysis of odontoid. One patient had a vertical dislocation of C2 associated with a forward subluxation. No spinal cord compression was noted in all cases. We believe that the proliferation of systematic studies of the cervical spine before any ankylosing spondylitis evolved is essential.

Keywords: Spondyloarthritis, cervical spine, dislocation.