Не совсем, конечно, грамотно по-русски — какие у шеи органы?

In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral oedema and then cerebral ischemia. Other processes that have been suggested to contribute are vagal collapse (via mechanical stimulation of the carotid sinus), and compromise of the cerebral blood flow by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins. Only 31 newtons (7 lbf or 3.2 kgf) of pressure may be enough to constrict the carotid arteries to the point of rapid unconsciousness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging

Strangling is compression of the neck that leads to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain.

Worship was evidently then conducted by a doctrine that forbade the shedding of
blood, the later Thugs developed the technique of strangling with a noose ...
www.revilo-oliver.com/rpo/Suicidal_Blunder.html

I guess "neck structures" sound more natural in English. Otherwise, this is just a variation of what David suggested earlier.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=ru&q="compression of neck st...

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic227.htm

... neck being a part of the spinal cord and all, here's the quote:

Simple asphyxiation is not the cause of death in the majority of hanging injuries. In addition to the disruption of blood to the brain, associated cervical spinal disruption secondary to the forces involved in the hanging are almost uniformly fatal. Significant cervical spine and associated injury to the spinal cord occurs in hangings that involve a fall from a distance greater than the body height.


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Note added at 4 hrs (2007-04-09 20:04:02 GMT)
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I mean Cervical - thanks tutta_karlson!

еще один вариант

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Note added at 20 час (2007-04-10 12:15:15 GMT)
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&d...

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/byname/hanging-injuries-and-s...