Surgical Outcome of Anterior Cervical Decompression and Fusion in Patients with Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy and Radiculopathy in Terms of Improvement of Pain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36552/pjns.v25i1.506Keywords:
surgical outcome, ACDF, VAS, CSM, RadiculopathyAbstract
Objective: Cervical spondylosis is a common degenerative condition leading to compression of nerve roots or spinal cord, causing radiculopathy or myelopathy. Anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) techniques are commonly recognized procedures in treating axial cervical spine pain and upper extremity radicular discomfort. The study analyzed the surgical outcome of anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) and radiculopathy patients in terms of pain improvement.
Material and Methods: This descriptive case series analysis was performed at the Neuro Surgery department, Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. A total of 146 patients between age 18 – 65 years meeting the inclusion criteria underwent anterior decompression &post-procedure improvement in pain of neck and arm/shoulder was determined using patient reported outcome (PRO) measure, namely visual analog scale (VAS) of 0-10 and a final outcome that is an improvement of pain, i.e., Mild to no pain (VAS score ?3) was considered after 12 months.
Results: The mean age was 52 years ± 8.273. As regards gender distribution, 78% of patients were male, while 22% were female. The mean baseline VAS score was 6.5 ± 2.37, mean postoperative VAS score was 3.5 ± 1.161 with a mean point improvement in pain of 3.0 points (p-value < 0.05). 80% of patients had shown improvement in reducing pain, while 20% did not have shown any improvement.
Conclusion: This study revealed that independent of symptoms duration and presentation, patients reported dramatic improvements in neck and arm pain after ACDF.
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Copyright (c) 2021 Hamayun Tahir, Afzal Raza, Mumtaz Ali, Naseer Hassan, Mohammad Ayaz, Hina Arooj, Zulfiqar Ali ShahThe work published by PJNS is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Copyrights on any open access article published by Pakistan Journal of Neurological Surgery are retained by the author(s).
