Vertebral Avulsion Injuries
151
References
connection with the venous plexus of the
vertebral canal; this anastomosis is addi-
tional to the usual drainage of the often
double basivertebral veins through their
foramina in the dorsal wall of the vertebral
body;
Breitinger, E. (1937) Zur Berechnung der Korper-
ho¨he aus den langen Gliedermassenknochen. An-
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Chance, G.Q. (1948) Note on type of flexion frac-
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Cope, R., Salmon, A. and Gaines, R. (1987) Associa-
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8. A vertebra with bony outgrowths along
the anterior border of its body (marginal
osteophytes) as a result of early vertebral
osteophytosis, DISH or seronegative
arthropathies (von Bechterew’s disease, Reit-
er’s syndrome, psoriatic arthritis); all these
afflictions may give pseudo-‘bow shaped’
borders and pseudo-‘teardrop osteophytes’;
they will not produce anterior displacement
of the annular epiphysis, nor will they pro-
duce anatomical discontinuities as seen in
case of a healed fracture;
Greenspan, A. (1988) Orthopedic Radiology. Philadel-
phia: Lippincott.
Hall, H.E. and Robertson, W.W. (1985) Another
chance: a non-seabelt related fracture of the lum-
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9. A vertebra with a coarse pitted endplate as a
result of vertebral osteophytosis (Degenera-
tive Disc Disease); in these cases the pitting
is very irregular, often showing reactive
bone growth, and is almost always accompa-
nied by marginal osteophytes (Rogers &
Waldron, 1995); it does not show the typi-
cal (partial or complete) regular uniform
porotic endplate changes representing a re-
placed haematoma.
In theory, the frequency of avulsion injuries
of the spine could be used as a parameter for
the liability of a population to contract mechan-
ical injuries. However, in practice, we expect
that the usual poor intact survival of human
vertebral columns originating from archaeologi-
cal excavations will hamper its epidemiological
use in most collections. Nevertheless, as shown
in our collections, its rather high occurrence in
an ‘average’ population makes it a valuable diag-
nosis at the individual level.
Jansen, R. (1994) Grote Kerk te Breda (BR-25-94).
Leiden: Archeologie, Interne Rapporten.
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(1991a) Avulsion of the cervical spinal ring apo-
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B. (1991b) Hidden cervical spine injuries in traffic
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LeGay, D.A., Petrie, D.P. and Alexander, D.I. (1990)
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Acknowledgements
Lin, P.S., Randal, B., Betz, R.B. and Patel, P.P. (1991)
Avulsion fracture involving the body of L5. Spine,
16: 371-372.
Maat, G.J.R., Mastwijk, R.W. and Van der Velde,
E.A. (1995) Skeletal distribution of degenerative
changes in vertebral osteophytosis, vertebral
Our thanks to P.M. Floore (excavator of the
Gorinchem collection), G. van den Eynde (ex-
cavator of the Breda collection), J.H. Lens (pho-
tographer) and Ms. A. Stirland (corrector of the
English manuscript).
Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 10: 142–152 (2000)