The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Digital Trial Lecture - time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Adjunct Professor Claes Olerud, Uppsala University, Sweden
- Second opponent: Professor Tore Solberg, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor II Hanne Flinstad Harbo, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of defence
Professor II Kjetil Sunde, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Hege Linnerud, Oslo University Hospital
Summary
Odontoid fracture (fracture of second cervical vertebrae) comprise approximately 20% of all traumatic cervical spine fractures. The incidence increases with age and is the most common cervical spine fracture in the elderly population. Until recently, surgery was recommended for odontoid fracture type II and III with significant translation regardless of the patient's age, and for all odontoid fracture type II fractures in patients ≥50 years. The main argument for this recommendation was proven low bony fusion after only external stabilization (such as neck collar). This recommendation has recently been challenged due to high surgical risk in these elderly and often severely comorbid patients. In a population-based cohort study, we document the incidence of traumatic odontoid fractures in Norway to be 2.8 / 100,000 people / year. The majority of patients with odontoid fractures were elderly and often had severe comorbidities and dependent living. We found that the compliance with the current treatment recommendations for odontoid fractures was low. The main deviation was underuse of surgery for odontoid fracture type II. In an observational cohort study, we found that primary conservative treatment (neck collar) of elderly comorbid patients with odontoid fracture type II appears to be safe and should be considered as good clinical practice and not as a deviation from current treatment recommendations. We also verified that non-surgical treatment of odontoid fracture type III is still the preferred treatment in the majority of patients. These findings are important for our understanding of the relationship between comorbidities and age and the choice of treatment for odontoid fractures. The work was performed at the Department of Neurosurgery, Oslo University Hospital - Ullevaal.
Additional information
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