v d i v t T spine, being the main stabilizing and weight-bearing structure of the axial skeleton, is commonly injured in high-energy accidents. The predominant cause of serious injury with spinal involvement in the industrialized world are blunt deceleration trauma from a motor vehicle accident (MVA) or fall from a height.1,2 Additionally, the increasing popularity of xtreme and contact sports, as well as other activities prone to high-speed/ igh-impact events on a professional or an amateur or leisure level, contribtes to the incidence of high-energy blunt deceleration trauma.2 Although ata on developing countries are scarce and documentation is commonly acking, the leading causes of traumatic spinal injury seem to correspond losely to those in the developed world. Areas with similar economies tend to ave similar patterns of injury.1 Before the advent of computed tomography (CT), radiographic exclusion of spinal injury was performed mainly by plain radiography, including multiple views of the cervical spine. Conventional tomography improved on this technique, with the x-ray tube and film being moved in opposite directions during exposure. This puts a predetermined plane into sharp focus and blurs all other layers. Conventional tomography remained a cornerstone of diagnostic imaging for the evaluation of deep structures otherwise invisible on radiographs owing to summation, until it was made obsolete by the introduction of CT. With the resolution and reformatting capabilities of modern multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scanners combined with rapid acquisition times, MDCT is the gold standard for the exclusion of spinal injury. Only in the event of a suspected ligamentous injury without involvement of bony structures does magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) perform better because of its inherent soft-tissue contrast.3