Early complications of cervical spine surgery in 96 patients

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the early complications of cervical spine surgery .Methods We retro-spectively analyzed 96 cervical spine surgery patients in our department ,including 56 cervical spondylotic myelopathy , 21 cervical fracture and/or dislocation ,11 cervical spine tumor ,5 atlantoaxial dislocation ,3 Chiari malformation .By analyzing causes of complications ,the countermeasures were developed .Results 27 patients had complications .The major complications were：death in 1 case,incision hematoma in 2 cases,incision infection in 4 cases,spine cord inju-ry or nerve root injury in 3 cases,cerebrospinal fluid leakage in 3 cases,superior laryngeal nerve and recurrent laryn-geal nerve injury in 4 cases,pulmonary infection in 5 cases,urinary tract infection in 4 cases.There were no esophage-al fistula and vertebral artery injury in these patients .The incidence rate in anterior ,posterior,anterior combined with posterior surgery was 24.6%（14/57）,36.8%（7/19）,40.0%（6/15） respectively.Conclusion Cervical spine surgery is likely to get early complications .Adequate preoperative preparation and improving operative techniques , timely and correctly handle the complications could reduce complications and improve cure rate . Key words: Cervical spine; Surgery; Complications