Biomechanical Implications of Asymmetric Gardner-Wells Tong Placement During Cervical Spine Traction.

In cases of cervical facet dislocations, traction is typically delivered in the acute setting with tongs attached to the skull via two pins. Although the pins are recommended to be inserted symmetrically in a neutral loading position, erroneous asymmetric pin placement has been documented in case reports, but its biomechanical implications are unknown. The current study utilized a human surrogate to evaluate the influence of asymmetrically placed pins in the axial or frontal planes.