Predictive abilities of O-C2 angle, O-EA angle, and Oc-Ax angle for the development of dysphagia in patients after occipitocervical fusion

Abstract

To compare the predictive abilities of O-C2 angle (O-C2a), O-EA angle (O-EAa), and Oc-Ax angle (Oc-Axa) for development of dysphagia in patients after occipitocervical fusion (OCF). Between April 2010 and May 2019, 114 patients who underwent OCF and met the selection criteria were selected as the research objects. Among them, 54 were males and 60 were females; they were 14-76 years old, with an average of 50.6 years old. The follow-up time was 13-122 months (median, 60.5 months). The O-C2a, O-EAa, Oc-Axa, and the narrowest oropharyngeal airway space (nPAS) were measured by the lateral X-ray films before operation and at last follow-up, and the differences before and after operation (dO-C2a, dO-EAa, dOc-Axa, and dnPAS) were calculated. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether they had developed postoperative dysphagia. The general data including age, gender, fixed segment, proportion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), atlantoaxial subluxation (AS), and combined with anterior release surgery (ARS), and imaging indicators were compared between the two groups. The correlations between dO-C2a, dO-EAa, and dOc-Axa and dnPAS in 114 patients were analyzed to further compare the predictive value of three imaging indicators for occurrence of dysphagia after OCF. Dysphagia occurred after OCF in 31 cases with the incidence of 27.2%. There was significant difference in gender between the dysphagia group and the non-dysphagia group ( χ 2=7.940, P=0.005). There was no significant difference between the two groups in age, fixed segment, the proportion of patients with RA, the proportion of patients with AS, and the proportion of patients combined with ARS ( P>0.05). There was no significant difference in O-C2a and Oc-Axa of 114 patients before operation and at last follow-up ( P>0.05). The differences in O-EAa and nPAS were significant ( P<0.05). There was no significant difference in preoperative O-EAa, Oc-Axa, and nPAS between the dysphagia group and the non-dysphagia group ( P>0.05); the difference in the O-C2a was significant ( t=2.470, P=0.016). At last follow-up, the differences in the above imaging indicators were significant ( P<0.05). There were significant differences in the dO-C2a, dO-EAa, dOc-Axa, and dnPAS between the two groups ( P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that the dO-C2a, dO-EAa, dOc-Axa were all positively correlated with dnPAS ( P<0.05). The dO-C2a≤-5°, postoperative O-EAa≤100°, postoperative Oc-Axa≤65° were all related to postoperative dysphagia ( P<0.05), and the highest risk factor suffering postoperative dysphagia was dO-C2a ≤-5° with a significant OR of 14.4. The dO-C2a, postoperative O-EAa, and postoperative Oc-Axa can be used as the predictive indexes of dysphagia after OCF, among which dO-C2a has the highest predictive value.