Comparing the postoperative results of single-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, cervical disc prosthesis and minimal invasive posterior cervical disc surgery

Abstract

Objective: Comparison of preoperative and postoperative clinical characteristics of patients who underwent single-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion, cervical discectomy and prosthesis or minimal invasive posterior cervical discectomy.Methods: The preoperative and the postoperative characteristics (0-, 3-, 12- and 24-month results) of patients who had undergone anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (24 patients, 40%), cervical discectomy and prosthesis (21 patients, 35%) or minimal invasive posterior cervical discectomy (15 patients, 25%), for single-level disc hernia of the C3 to C7 region at the İstanbul Yeni Yüzyıl University Gaziosmanpaşa Hospital between February 2015 and December 2017 were evaluated postoperatively using visual pain scales, neck disability index (NDI) values and Odom’s criteria.Results: Postoperative visual analog scale and NDI scores were significantly decreased immediately after surgery in all groups (p < .001). Similarly, these two values at the second year were significantly decreased compared to post-op values (p < .001). When pre-op, post-op, third month, first year and second year scores were compared between the groups, a significant difference was found between the groups (p < .001). It was observed that the minimal invasive posterior cervical discectomy surgery was significantly better than the other two surgeries in all follow-up assessments (p < .001 for all follow-up).Conclusion: The early postoperative values of the visual pain scale and neck disability indicator were found to demonstrate immediate benefits of the surgeries, in addition to the further decrease at the 2-year follow-up in this study.