# Pathological Mechanisms and Additional Factors Involved in Complex Neck Traumatology
## 3 Results  
### Determining the Mechanism of Cervical Trauma  
In our study, were included 384 patients, three predominant mechanisms were identified: self-inflicted, aggression, and accidental. Statistically, the determining mechanism of cervical trauma on both groups was the self-inflicted one with a percentage of 78.4%, followed by aggression in 14.8% of cases, and last but not least, the accidental mechanism in a percentage of 6.8% (Figure 1). Compared to study groups, the ANOVA test was used to highlight statistically significant percentage differences (\(p=0.001\)):--in group 1 (\(n=106\)), the lesion determining mechanism through aggression (39.6%) was more frequently noticed, followed by the self-inflicted mechanism (39.6%) and the accidental mechanism (22.6%); (Figure 2)--in group 2 (\(n=278\)), in 93.9% of patients the self-inflicted mechanism was present, to the detriment of aggression (5.4%) and the accidental mechanism (0.7%) (Figure 2). In patients in group 1, stabbing aggression predominates (39.6%) and the self-inflicted mechanism by hanging (22.6%) (Table 1). In patients in group 2, the most common mechanism was autolytic by hanging (91%) followed by stabbing aggression (4.3%) (Table 2). Regarding the lesion aspect, the patients from group 1 were statistically analyzed, regarding the classification of cervical traumas in closed/open and penetrating/non-penetrating. Therefore, penetrating open cervical traumas were identified in 87.5% of cases caused by accidental mechanism and 66.7% of cases caused by aggression, respectively. It is observed that non-penetrating/closed traumatic injuries are present in 65% (\(p=0.001\)) in the case of those determined by self-inflicted mechanisms (Figure 3).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Mechanisms** & **Group 1** & **Group 2** \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Self-inflicted**} \\ \hline Hanging & 24 (22.6\%) & 253 (91.0\%) \\ Stabbing & 6 (5.7\%) & 0 (0.0\%) \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Aggression**} \\ \hline Stabbing & 42 (39.6\%) & 12 (4.3\%) \\ Constriction & 6 (5.7\%) & 7 (2.5\%) \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Accidentally**} \\ \hline Work accident & 7 (6.6\%) & 0 (0.0\%) \\ Domestic accident & 3 (2.8\%) & 1 (0.4\%) \\ Road accident & 2 (1.9\%) & 1 (0.4\%) \\ Falling from a height & 8 (7.5\%) & 0 (0.0\%) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Types of mechanisms identified on study groups.  
Figure 1: Distribution of cases according to the lesion mechanism.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Characteristics** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Group 1**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Group 2**} \\ \cline{2-9}  & **Self-Inflicted** & **Aggression** & **Accidentally** & **\(p\)** & **Self-Inflicted** & **Aggression** & **Accidentally** & **\(p\)** \\  & **(\(n\) = 40)** & **(\(n\) = 24)** & **(\(n\) = 24)** & **(\(n\) = 261)** & **(\(n\) = 15)** & **(\(n\) = 2)** & **\(p\)** \\ \hline
**Male** & 38 & 36 & 21 & 0.326 & 232 & 7 & 1 \\ \(n\) (\%) & (95.0\%) & (85.7\%) & (87.5\%) & 0.326 & (88.9\%) & (46.7\%) & (50.0\%) \\ \hline
**Rural** & 22 & 25 & 13 & & 194 & 11 & 1 \\ \(n\) (\%) & (55.0\%) & (59.5\%) & (54.2\%) & 0.884 & (74.3\%) & (73.3\%) & (50.0\%) \\ \hline \(\geq\)**45 age** & 18 & 18 & 11 & & 148 & 7 & 1 \\ \(n\) (\%) & (45.0\%) & (42.9\%) & (45.8\%) & 0.967 & (56.7\%) & (46.7\%) & (50.0\%) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: The correlation between the lesion mechanism and the comparative epidemiological characteristics on study groups.  
Figure 2: The structure of the groups according to the lesion mechanism.