For a study, it was determined that patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy who underwent multilevel posterior cervical interfaces distraction and fusion (PCIDF) with cages for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR) were reviewed retrospectively. Researchers wanted to investigate the clinical and radiological outcomes of multilayer PCIDF. The standard of care for CSR has long been anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Endoscopic discectomy, foraminotomy, and PCIDF are examples of minimally invasive methods used in surgery. Good clinical outcomes, short hospital stays, and few problems have been documented in single-level PCIDF outline, but its application in multilevel disease is still emerging. The researchers looked at patients with a CSR and confirmed radiologic evidence of multilayer foraminal stenosis but no central canal stenosis. Neck Disability Index, neck and arm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), radiographic cervical alignment parameters, evidence of fusion, and incidence of neighboring segment degeneration were all compared at different time points in the multilevel PCIDF outline. Researchers included 30 individuals (mean age 54.6±8.3) who were treated for an average of between (3.4 ± 0.8) levels. The average length of stay was somewhere (1.8 ± 1.5) days, and the average surgery duration and intraoperative blood loss were somewhere between (143.2 ± 69.7) minutes and somewhere (27.7 ± 28.7 mL), respectively. The Neck Disability Index, VAS-neck, and VAS-arm improved significantly at 2 weeks (P<0.001) and remained stable until 2 years after surgery. At 3 months postoperatively, there was a significant decrease in segmental and C2-C7 lordosis, with a matching increase in the sagittal vertical axis (P<0.001), but this did not worsen on following visits. After 2 years, 90% of patients had a successful fusion. In the cohort, there was a 13.3% incidence of neighboring segment degeneration and one perioperative morbidity (3.3%). Multilevel PCIDF appears to be safe and efficacious for CSR induced by foraminal stenosis, according to research. However, its ability to generate kyphosis and its clinical influence on global sagittal alignment warrants more investigation and long-term testing.
Link:journals.lww.com/spinejournal/Abstract/2021/11010/Multilevel,_Percutaneous_Posterior_Cervical.7.aspx
