The complexity of seat belt injuries including spinal injury in the pediatric population: a case report of a 6-year-old boy and the literature review.

We present, along with a literature review, the case report of a 6-year-old boy, involved in a high-speed motor vehicle accident, who sustained a seat belt injury of the lumbar spine. We discuss the clinical presentation of thoracolumbar fractures in children, the sensitivity of clinical examination and radiographic evaluation and the associated abdominal injuries that are commonly present with seat belt spinal injuries. Computerized tomography is limited in the detection of soft tissue spinal fractures because these fractures occur in the plain of the section.