Question

A patient met with a road traffic accident and developed a cervical spine injury. The fracture fragment had pierced the lateral aspect of the dorsal column tract. Which of the following findings is seen in this patient ?

• A. Absence of ipsilateral lower limb proprioception
• B. Absence of fine motor movement of fingers
• C. Absence of ipsilateral arm proprioception
• D. Absence of contralateral lower limb proprioception

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

The cervical spine is a vital component of the human body comprising nerves that affect sensory and motor functions. In a road traffic accident, if a fracture fragment damages the dorsal column tract on the lateral aspect, it impacts the transmission of specific sensory modalities.

The dorsal column-medial lemniscal pathway carries sensations such as proprioception, vibration, and fine touch from the body's periphery to the brain. When this pathway is damaged on one side (ipsilateral), the affected sensations do not reach the brain from that side of the body below the level of injury.

In this specific case, since the injury affects the lateral aspect of the dorsal column tract at the cervical level, it will impact the transmission of proprioceptive signals from the ipsilateral arm. This is because the proprioceptive information from the arm and upper body travels through this area of the spinal cord to the brain.

Therefore, the correct finding in this scenario will be: Absence of ipsilateral arm proprioception. This is due to the disruption of the sensory pathway responsible for transmitting proprioceptive information from the arm on the same side of the body as the injury.