No abstract

TDR may have a positive effect on atypical symptoms associated with cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy.

BackgroundAnterior cervical discectomy and fusion, total disk replacement and open door laminoplasty have been widely used to treat patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy. In our clinical practice, many patients with cervical spondylosis also complain of headache, and wish to know if the surgical treatment for cervical spondylosis can also alleviate this symptom. Considering that there is no literature concerning this extra benefit of surgical manipulation on cervical spondylosis, we have carried out this retrospective study.MethodsAmong the patients treated with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, total disk replacement and open door laminoplasty in our institute for cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy between February 2002 to March 2011, 108 of whom that have complained about headache at the same time were included in this study. Those patients were followed by 25 to 145 months. Severity of headache before the surgery and at the last follow up was recorded by VAS pain scores and compared among the patients with different surgical methods using SPSS17.0 software. One way ANOVA was used to compare VAS scores between the groups, paired sample t-tests were used to compare the differences in a group at different time points.ResultsHeadache was significantly alleviated in all groups (P < 0.01). Respectively, 75.0 % of the patients in the ACDF group, 84.6 % of the patients in the TDR group and 82.2 % of the patients in the laminoplasty group were significantly relieved of the headache after the surgery. No significant differences were found with the VAS score at the last follow up among the groups (P > 0.05). No significant differences were found among the groups comparing the degree of alleviation of VAS scores before and after the surgery (P > 0.05).DiscussionConsidering that all the three procedures in the current study have achieved similar effect on alliviating headache in patients with cevical myelopathy, and that what they have in common was that was the decompression of spinal cord, it can be assumed that the headache associated with cervical spondylosis may be the result of compression on the spinal cord.ConclusionsAnterior cervical discectomy and fusion, total disk replacement and open door laminoplasty can all significantly alleviate headache in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy. No surgical technique is better than any other technique on alleviating cervical headache associated with cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy.

Background A considerable number of patients with cervical spondylosis complain about one or multiple atypical symptoms such as vertigo, palpitations, headache, blurred vision, hypomnesia, and/or nausea. It remains unclear whether surgical intervention for cervical spondylosis can also effectively alleviate those symptoms. The current study was performed to see if anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion (ACDF) offers such an extra benefit for patients with cervical spondylosis. Objective To investigate if patients who received ACDF for the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy can also achieve alleviation of certain atypical symptoms associated with cervical spondylosis after the surgery in the long run. Methods Sixty-seven patients who underwent ACDF for the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy were involved in this study. All these patients also complained about various associated atypical symptoms. They were followed up for 26 to 145 months after the surgery. Severity and frequency scores of the atypical symptoms before the surgery and at last follow-up were compared by paired t tests. Results Most patients reported significantly alleviated symptoms at the last follow-up compared with before the surgery. The severity of vertigo, headache, nausea, and palpitations were significantly alleviated at the last follow-up (with p values of p < 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.022, p = 0.004, respectively). There were no significant changes in the severity of tinnitus (p = 0.182), blurred vision (p = 0.260), and hypomnesia (p = 0.821). Conclusion ACDF can significantly alleviate vertigo, headache, nausea, and palpitations in most patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy and/or radiculopathy, but it is not effective in alleviating symptoms such as tinnitus, blurred vision, and hypomnesia. It can be considered for alleviating atypical symptoms when other treatment options prove ineffective.