Coronal computed tomography is better than conventional radiography so at the present time there is an increasing demand for it to assess spinal pathology.

At the Gustavo Aldereguia Lima University Hospital in Cienfuegos city, Cuba, we have twelve years' experience of performing coronal computed tomography of the upper cervical spine in the emergency department and on an outpatient basis. In this study we evaluate the bony structures, paravertebral soft tissue, intervertebral discs and spinal canal doing 2D coronal and sagittal reconstructions and 3D.

Our staff consider coronal computed tomography of the upper cervical spine for the following indications:
- In patients with pathological conventional radiography.
- In patients with negative conventional studies, but clinical suspicion persists.
- In spinal trauma.
- In congenital vertebral bodies.
- In benign and malignant bone tumors.
- In search of lytic bone metastases, blastic or mixed in patients with neoplastic disease.
- In the study of back pain.
- In alterations axes
- In disc pathology.

Competing interests: None declared