Presentation
Retired man with acute on chronic neck pain. High clinical concern resulted in CT following limited plain film views.
Patient Data
Aside from an open degenerative C5/C6 intervertebral disc space, the whole of the cervical spine is ankylosed.
The florid ankylosis of the whole visualized cervicothoracic spine is illustrated.
The angulation at C5/C6 is due to this being the only remaining non-fused intervertebral disc space.
The C5/C6 disc space is degenerative.
The rigid structure if bamboo from which the name of an ankylosed spine is rightly derived.
Case Discussion
Ankylosing spondylitis is a form of negative spondyloarthritides, nearly exclusively affecting males.
This is characterized with ankylosis of the spine and sacroiliac joints, forming in the most extreme cases a bamboo spine - the spine ankylosing into one rigid 'block' of bone, which is resultingly extremely susceptible to fracture.