Exophytic External Occipital Protuberance Prevalence Pre- andPost-iPhone Introduction: A Retrospective Cohort

摘要

Introduction: In controversial fashion, the presence of an enlargedexternal occipital protuberance has been recently linked to excessive use ofhandheld electronic devices. We sought to determine the prevalence of thisprotuberance in a diverse age group of adults from two separate time periods,before and approximately 10 years after the release of the iPhone, to furthercharacterize this theory, as if indeed valid, such a relationship could directpreventative behavior. Materials and Methods: Eighty-two cervicalspine radiographs between March 7, 2007 through June 29, 2007 and 147 cervicalspine radiographs between October 25, 2017 through January 1, 2018 were reviewedfor the presence or absence of an exophytic external occipital protuberance.Influence of sex and age were also assessed. Results: There were41/82 (50%) patients within the 2007 pre-iPhone group with an exophytic externaloccipital protuberance, ranging from 2.7-33.8 mm in length. Twenty-seven out of82 (32.9%) had an external occipital protuberance at or above 10 mm. There were49/147 (33.3%) patients within the 2017 post-iPhone group with an exophyticexternal occipital protuberance, ranging from 4.4-53.8 mm in length.Thirty-three out of 147 (22.4%) had an external occipital protuberance at orabove 10 mm. When considering accessibility to the iPhone, sex, and age to thepresence of an exophytic external occipital protuberance, only sex has astatistically significant association, p=0.000000033. Conclusion:We found no significant association with iPhone accessibility and an exophyticexternal occipital protuberance. Due to inherent limitations in theretrospective nature of the study, future research is needed to better examinethe association of handheld electronic devices with exophytic external occipitalprotuberances.