COMEDK 2007 MCQ Answer 62

The correct answer is C


In judicial hanging the posterior arch of the axis is snapped clean off and remains fixed to the third vertebra, while the atlas, the Odontoid process, and the anterior arch of the axis remain fixed to skull.

Schneider and colleagues first introduced the term hangman fracture into the modern medical lexicon in 1965 when they described eight patients who sustained bilateral fractures through the neural arch of the axis, with or without dislocation of the body of the axis from that of the third cervical vertebra. According to these authors, "This type of fracture-dislocation occurs in modern judicial hanging and in some instances of traffic accidents".

Most likely, the forces involved in judicial hanging are much greater than those sustained by many motor vehicle accident victims, and the spinal disruption between C2 and C3 caused by judicial hanging is considerably greater.